Locked Away
by silversurf4
Summary: LAPD needed a female UC in County Lockup. Tidwell suggests Reese, Crews disagrees, and Reese goes anyway. What follows is something none of them could predict. Rated M for language & sexual suggestive incidents. COMPLETED 20 Jan 2013 - The End (for now).
1. Chapter 1

**Locked Away – Chapter One**

She was lying on the top bunk trying not to move. She didn't want to move because the woman in the bottom bunk had just begun to snore and Dani really didn't want to wake her. The springs in her bunk made squeaking sounds so she lay absolutely and entirely still, focusing on her breathing.

As she did this, an image of Crews popped into her mind. She did want to think about him – she just did.

Her tongue traced the outline of her teeth, each felt sharp and on edge. She probed the raw edge of her split lip and then gently felt the edges of her blossoming black eye with her fingers. Both were evidence of her recent fight in the yard with the woman who shared her cell and wanted to share a whole lot more.

Crews was right, he couldn't protect her.

No one could protect her in here, but herself. She was learning what it meant to be truly alone and missing her partner more each time her breath entered and left her sore ribcage. As she practiced deliberate measured breaths, her mind wandered taking her back to the morning Captain Tidwell proposed this undercover assignment.

* * *

The Department wanted to put someone into the woman's wing of the LA County Jail to determine if rumors there of Sheriff's deputies abusing their authority were true. Department leadership looked at all possible candidates and determined Dani was one of the few with enough street savvy to blend in with the criminal element and tough enough to bear the strain of the assignment.

Crews' face got impossibly pale and he blurted out "no" before Tidwell could even get into the operational aspects of the plan. Dani's head swung hard looking at her partner and then back at Tidwell. She begged a minute and questioned Crews with her eyes. His head shook back and forth vigorously and while no speech occurred – a whole lot of talking was being done between the tall red haired man and his partner.

Tidwell straightened his tie, cleared his throat and looked at Dani for permission to continue as the silence in the room stretched uncomfortably. She shook him off and continued to silently interrogate her partner. She watched his hand tremble as he raised it off his thigh, then just as quickly Crews wiped his palms along his thighs and appeared to have developed a nervous twitch. The corners of his mouth twitched and his eyes were wild.

"Are we good?" Tidwell inquired.

Dani nodded curtly and the Captain began again. He only made it three words into his opening sentence, when the word "no" again erupted from Crews' lips forcefully and he sprang from his chair as if shot from it.

The look Dani shot her partner was pure hatred. Mere mortals would have melted under her direct stare, but not Crews. He walked right through the heat of her glare, grasped her hand and tugged her forcefully through the open door and into the squad room. By the time they hit their conjoined desks; he was dragging her.

"Crews," she barked, "stop."

He continued undeterred and she dug in her heels. He paused and seemed to seriously consider hefting her over his shoulder.

She obviously followed his train of thought because her next words were, "don't you dare." She stopped resisting and let him lead her into the stairwell beside the elevator, but there she stopped him.

"Charlie," she spoke quietly. He froze, hand still wrapped around her wrist tightly.

"Talk to me," she coaxed. She could see him take two or three deep breaths before he turned to face her. His face was a mask of calm, but his eyes remained wild and an unnatural greenish blue.

"You can't go in there," he finally explained. "I can't protect you in there."

"I hate to break it to you, but you don't 'protect' me out here," she said patiently. She waited a few moments, holding his eyes. "I can do this; I'll be fine."

"No," he said again strongly, shaking his head and breaking contact with her eyes.

"Crews," she brought him back to her with her tone, "I am doing this." Her attitude said, don't fight me on this – you'll lose.

His eyes held panic and fear, but his face betrayed nothing. He nodded mutely.

"Now, let's go back…" she began.

"No…" he interrupted. "I have to go," he announced and dropped her wrist, pivoted and raced down the stairs. He was gone so fast she thought she'd imagined their exchange but for the ring of heat from his hand around her wrist. She rubbed the spot and slowly returned through the bay to the perplexed Captain's office.

"What's with Crews?" Tidwell asked.

"He's not feeling well," she lied and dared him to challenge her with a direct stare.

"Dani?" he questioned in a low tone brooking no argument. "I'm still your Captain and he's still one of my Detectives."

Part of her was irked at him. He was still her Captain and he was still fucking her on a nightly basis, but pulling rank at work. Part of her understood his concern, she shared it, but another deeper part of her felt protective of Crews. He was "her partner" and that was none of Kevin Tidwell's business.

If Crews were around he would remind her that "people don't belong to each other; people belong to the universe" or some such nonsense, but ownership was what she felt for Crews. He was like a very bad dog you constantly had to apologize for; one you and only you - seemed to see the worth in.

"He's fine. I'm fine. We're all fine – now let's do this," she demanded.

Tidwell knew better than to argue with her.

* * *

Now in the dark at night, three weeks later, the man who occupied her thoughts was not her part time lover, full time boss, but instead it was her Zen spouting, fruit munching shadow. That annoyed her to no end, but it was Crews that occupied her brain and who haunted her dreams when they came – which inside was rarely.

Her mind recreated the color of his eyes and the smattering of freckles on his brow; the eyelashes so blonde they vanished in the sun and the row of white teeth that smiled at her every day for the past three years. It was him, Crews that came to her in the dark of night. It was his smile, his eyes that buoyed her when things seemed darkest. It was he, who thought of her most, who worried for her – not because he didn't trust her competence, but Crews alone knew the dangers that lurked in prisons. Not Tidwell, not her mother, just Crews.

He'd visited her one-day. She was called to the visitor's room and expected an update on the investigation, contact with another Detective, but not him. Anyone but him, yet here he was sitting rigidly in stainless steel chair in front of a plate of Plexiglas staring straight ahead until she sat opposite him. She realized this had to be incredibly difficult for him. Being back in prison for any reason made him edgy, unnerved him and Crews was generally implacable. She was the more mercurial of the two.

She watched him as she approached, he was concentrating hard to appear unfazed, but she knew better. The forlorn look on his face transformed into a plastic smile and then a tight grimace when he picked up the olive drab phone on the wall. She held the headset to her ear in time to listen to him sigh. It shouldn't have felt the way it did. The feeling it gave her was deep release and comfort.

He slowly placed a hand on the glass and just the fingers of his hand made a heat print on it. The air around it filled with his tenseness and his anguish; steam outlined each of his fingers. She was careful not to touch it or by extension him.

"Why are you here?" she asked when he said nothing, but continued to look at her.

He took his hand away, shrugged and offered, "to see how you are." Then after a beat when she didn't answer, "to let you know you are not alone. We are none of us alone."

Her cheeky reply was, "yeah, tell me about it. I wish I was alone. I got a cellmate that likes me better than my first boyfriend did," her tight smile was meant to convey stability. It didn't.

Crews didn't smile, he didn't joke. His eyes narrowed and he became very earnest in his advice, "use your size," he instructed. "You're small, you're light, you're quick," he spoke softly, "but be vicious, be unmerciful. It's the only way…" he stopped speaking as someone behind him left and walked into their space on their way out.

"Do you need anything?" he changed tacks.

"A beer?" she offered. His smile didn't reach his eyes, nor did hers.

"Say the word and I'll get you out of here," he spoke strongly and held her eyes. "Right now, Reese," he offered.

She believed him. Somehow she knew he'd come right through that sheet of two inch Plexiglas with nothing but his teeth and nails, if she but said the word, but she didn't. "I'm fine," she lied.

The day the woman below came for her. Dani used his advice. She stayed low to the ground and used her size and quickness to stay away. There were blows exchanged, but despite the other woman's size she was unable to bully Dani. It was a draw; both retreated licking their wounds. There would be more pressure later, but for now; she'd forestalled something ominous.

It wasn't the first time she'd lay in her bunk and thought of Crews.

* * *

Two days later there was another visitor, she felt anxious and strangely hopeful.

She was disappointed to find Tidwell waiting on the other side of the glass. She picked up the phone and he chatted amiably, checked on her status and told her about another two weeks should do it. He asked about the black eye, but accepted her story and didn't seem overly concerned. He wanted to know if she needed anything and she politely said no.

Telling your boss and lover that what you really needed was to see a certain six foot one inch redhead probably wouldn't go over well. She knew she was crazy when she lay awake that night recreating the sound of Crews' heavy sigh.

* * *

The next day another visitor, this time she expected Tidwell. She knew he'd forgotten to tell her something or had some news, but instead what awaited her was the pale, tall vision from her dreams and midnight musings. He was immediately angry and it showed on his usually serene face. He snatched the phone off the wall with enough force she'd thought he was going to break it.

"Who did that to you?" he demanded breathlessly.

"Crews," she gritted. "It's nothing," her tone was low, but the fire behind his eyes excited her. He was ready to hurt someone – over her.

"If one of those guys…" he began, his teeth clenched together.

"Relax," she coached, "it was another girl."

"Oh," he responded. Then words failed him. The "oh" remained on his face as his brain absorbed and appreciated what he'd said. She knew that like most men, his brain probably became stimulated at the thought of two women, so she called him back from his reverie.

"Earth to Crews," she got his attention.

"Are you okay?" he rebounded quickly.

"Yeah," she grinned until her split lip hurt. "Couple bruises, nothing serious."

"Reese," there was an almost whine in his voice. "I want you out of there," he said solidly.

"Tidwell says another couple weeks," she patiently explained.

"I know what he says," Crews lectured, "but him visiting you was a dumb move. Any one in here now knows that you're still on the job."

"Uh - you're visiting me," she pointed out the obvious. There was unmistakeable annoyance in her tone.

"Uh - convicted murderer," he mimicked, pointing to himself.

"So what's that? Clout? Status?" she wondered.

"With these people? In here? Yes…" he replied. He wasn't proud of it, it just was.

His comment was telling. The longer this misadventure continued, the more she learned about Crews and the more he learned about her. She thought back to the conversation they had the day before they took her away in cuffs and locked her away in County. It revealed a lot about them both and linked them in even more meaningful ways than she'd ever have believed possible.


	2. Chapter 2

**Locked Away – Chapter Two**

"Jesus, Crews," she complained as once again they were sequestered in the stairwell, where they seemed destined to have every meaningful conversation of their lives. It was the day her undercover gig in County was supposed to start.

He was angry. His anger was impressive and something she'd previously only seen leveled at other people. This time he was incensed – with her.

"You want me to let you go inside - then you're gonna tell me something, you gonna give me something that costs," he hissed. He held her by both arms in an iron grip, breaking away and stomping off wasn't an option.

And there was something else, something intriguing, something glittering and irresistible to her – a hardness behind his eyes that hinted at the dangers she knew lurked deep within him, always hidden, always suppressed. This Charlie Crews was a dangerous, powerful animal. Only this perceived peril to her coaxed that dark animal into the light and she found it was something she wanted to see, something she wanted to know about him_. _

_The question was… was knowing – seeing this - worth the cost he'd exact? Because make no mistake he'd make her pay to see his darkness. _

"If….you're going to let me go?" she began a halfhearted caustic tirade, which was interrupted when he slammed her against the wall and promised in a breathless "yes," that she'd not misheard him.

Her psyche fought him because her body could not and it showed it on both her snarled response and the blistering gaze she leveled at him. "What?" she glared back with hard black eyes, "what do you want?"

Anyone walking in on them now would assume one of two things; they were going to kill each other or fuck each other senseless. His power and fierceness excited her. He must have felt it too because his response took a second too long and his gaze shifted to her lips before answering. Again Dani was intrigued. His effort to calm down was apparent in his tone and his breathing as he forced himself to breath deeply.

'Tell me how you became an addict," he leveled his demand at her – his control returning.

"You know why," she whined. "I was undercover. There was a guy…" she complained reciting the same story she'd told a hundred times to everyone from her shrink to her parents to the Department.

"No," he barked. There was a sharp, foreign edge to his voice. "That's bullshit and you know it," he challenged. His voice was strong, but no longer angry.

She swallowed hard knowing he knew her in ways Tidwell could only imagine. Only Charlie Crews could drive her where she'd refused to go for years now and he meant to make her face it, make them both face this – now.

"Tell me," he held her eyes, "why a control freak like you would give yourself over to the chaos of drugs."

It was fair question and a good one. It shocked her that he'd be bold enough to ask her, much less demand it. She recoiled from reacting, but even that was a reaction and he watched her. She hated that he could read her so well and knew her so completely. She shook her head, but he held her fast and continued to look down at her. He didn't speak, moments passed becoming minutes and still they remained locked in battle – a contest of wills.

"First tell me why you want to know," she defended.

A phantom smile crossed his thin chapped lips and it was gone so fast she was sure she'd imagined it. Except that her response signaled defeat, acceptance, that she would tell him if he could pass her test.

She'd already accepted the fact that she'd tell him, but she'd exact her own price.

What she couldn't know was that the flash of a smile was a reaction to her question, not her acquiescence. It was the exact same question he'd demanded of Roman – "tell me why you want to know." So they weren't that far apart after all. They both had the same questions and Charlie knew questions were all anyone really had.

Answers were few and often illusions.

"I've told you," he said patiently, "you control every aspect of your life…and some of mine. How can a person that locked down, that rigid and inflexible, throw all that to the wind - to lose control to drugs? What made you do that?"

She rolled her eyes, "they're drugs Crews."

"Uh-uh," he rejected her feint. 'Tell me Reese," he paused uncomfortably and then finished. "Tell me…so I'll know you aren't doing it again."

This puzzled her and her look told him so. He was concerned about her motive, about her self-destructive tendencies. He wasn't being a freak about prison, he was being protective of her – just as he'd always been. But this was a different kind of place and somewhere he couldn't trade his life for hers or place himself in the face of danger instead of her. She'd be alone, as she'd been before; but since the day Crews came into her life she'd never felt that kind of alone again. He feared it and now, that she knew that it; she feared it a little bit too.

"I know what it's like…" he taunted, "to want to feel something…anything… so bad that you welcome it…pain, heartbreak, agony," he paused a breath, "even death."

She knew what he was talking about and it all made sense. He feared her going inside because of her own worst instincts, her tendency toward things that hurt her – men, liquor, drugs. He feared for her and his reaction was sudden, immediate and overwhelming. It was like standing the face of jet engine and feeling the noise, the heat and the energy coming off him.

He didn't deserve her wrath or disdain; he deserved the truth. She looked down and decided her words carefully. She spoke them without looking up.

"All my life I was perfect, best grades, best conduct, best athlete and it all got too be too much. I didn't want to be that. I wanted to be something else. Drugs gave me that – the ability not to care if I looked good or performed well. They just made me feel good and wild, free…and that appealed to me….for awhile. It was powerful, just like a narcotic."

"But you came back…" he commented.

Her short laugh preceded her raising her head to risk a look at him. "Yeah, I came back to this, to you." She didn't intend it to be personal, but then suddenly it was.

The look in his eyes changed and the hardness was gone, supplanted by concern and perhaps even affection. His hands loosened, slid down her arms and lingered at her wrists for a moment, before dropping to his side.

"Will you stay?" he looked down.

"In lock up?" she joked darkly.

"No," he answered quickly, perhaps too quickly, "here, with me. Will you stay?"

Shock couldn't begin to describe the fluttering in her stomach and flash of heat she felt burn her cheeks. He wasn't asking that. He meant working together – he had to. Only she was no longer sure.

"Reese," he spoke her name softly as a question and she wouldn't look at him. "I don't want you to go in there, but if you tell me you'll come back, I'll believe you."

_Would she come back? And if she did was she coming back to him? What was he to her? Partner? Friend? _ More than any man had been to her in years and yet there was nothing between them but empty air and possibility.

"I'll be fine," she brushed it aside, but he simply cleared his throat and forced her look at him. "I'll come back," she vowed and then added an unnecessary qualifier, "I'll come back to you." She cursed herself in her head as soon as the words bubbled forth, but they were birds flown and in the sky for all to see.

"Good," was all he said and then he was gone. He walked away without another word or a backwards glance.

"Shit," she swore softly to herself. Her words echoed in the now empty stairwell, "What the hell just happened?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Locked Away – Chapter Three**

No one saw this coming but Crews.

He, of course, would say "you can't see the future coming - because it's not real, not there, not known." It was one of the more than a dozen things about him that drove her berserk, but he knew that bad things happen in prison and things you can't control. As she faded from consciousness, Dani's thoughts were once again on her partner and it was becoming more troubling all the time.

* * *

_Earlier that day….._

The second time the woman came at Reese it was in the yard. Apparently when you stand up to the bully in prison, they come back – with their friends. This time Reese was surer of herself, more confident, and maybe that was her fatal error. She never saw the gang of bystanders that gathered to watch as possible participants.

So when she and her bunkie circled, low and fast, readying to engage; Dani was quick and sure. She could do this. She'd prove to Crews that she didn't need him to protect her – although in truth his advice was doing just that.

Then suddenly she was held fast by people she had no quarrel with. The other woman was in her face and the shank was sunk deep into her side before Reese could register more than simply being sucker punched.

She felt the blow and then the crowd melted away. She reached down with her hand and felt the object sticking out of her side. It was instinct to pull it out, but when she did her hand came away bloody. The world tilted and swam. Darkness edged into her vision and she collapsed to her knees to keep from losing consciousness. Unconscious she could no longer fight.

A guard noticed her distress and signaled for help, but kept clear lest her actions be a ploy to hurt him. He winced at the blood. His name was MacIntyre, she recalled. They called him Mac The Black because his Irish sounding name didn't mix well with his African American ancestry. He hovered around the edges of things as the medics loaded her onto a gurney as they wheeled her to the infirmary.

"Mac," she gasped. "Call my…" she should have said boyfriend, Captain, boss, but instead what she asked for was Crews, "partner."

"That ex-con that visits you? The red head?" Mac confirmed.

She nodded and bit her lip at the pain as they moved her from the gurney to the hospital bed. "His number is…" she began.

"It's on the visitor's log," confirming he knew how to find the man she wanted.

* * *

She felt fuzzy and disoriented as she fought her way back. She blinked awake to bright white lights and grey green walls and then faded away again. Just before things went black again, she saw a flash of red. _It had to be him – didn't it?_

* * *

The LAPD Robbery Homicide Captain was dressed in the red jersey of a league softball team. He'd hastily come to the infirmary from a ball game after learning Reese was hurt. He distinctly made a point of 'not' calling Crews and yet here the man was. Angry, agitated and obviously he flew there because Crews beat the Captain there and Tidwell ran code three with a marked unit.

"What are you doing here?" Tidwell questioned testily.

Crews' answer was a snarled, "I told you this was a bad idea." He turned and took two steps toward the Captain, before deciding that thrashing his boss inside a prison was not a smart move. He flexed his fingers into a fist and released them twice to expel the impulse to throttle the man. Tidwell didn't miss the taller man's level of agitation.

"This isn't my fault," Tidwell defended.

"Nothing ever is," Crews challenged snidely. "Is it?"

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Tidwell's harsh whisper let Crews know they were not alone and that Tidwell didn't want outsiders overhearing their disagreement.

"It means that twice," Crews lower his voice and paused for effect, "twice – you've put her in harm's way." He repeated his emphasized point again this time with an accompanying hand gesture of two fingers, "twice."

"I didn't put her in danger," Tidwell argued. "I trusted her to do her job. She wanted to go. She wanted to do this. You are the one who puts her in danger."

Crews' eyes narrowed in defiance but he didn't argue the point. Tidwell was right, Roman taking Reese was about him. He couldn't really prove this wasn't related to him right now, but he didn't think it was. _Was Tidwell right? Did he not trust Reese to handle herself?_

A curmudgeonly old doctor who entered demanding, "okay, which one's the boss and which one's the boyfriend," interrupted Crews' internal inquiry. It never occurred to him that the boss and the boyfriend could be the same guy.

Empty air answered the old man who was obviously pissed at their collective lack of response. "Okay, dumb Asses, let me make this easy for you. Who's Crews?"

Charlie mutely stuck his hand in the air.

"Great, boyfriend," the doctor pronounced. "You," he pointed at Crews, "in there," the man pointed to the door through which a sleeping Dani Reese lay. Crews opened his mouth, then closed it just as quickly and stepped away from conflict and towards the reason he was there – to Reese.

"You," the doctor directed Tidwell, "come with me." Crews thought he heard Tidwell start to protest, but the man thought wiser of it and instead did as he was told.

* * *

Once inside the still quiet room with Reese, Charlie found himself very nervous. He wiped his palms on his jeans, paced four steps into the room and froze. _What would he say if she woke up? _

Despite his better efforts, payments and contacts on the inside, he couldn't do much to keep her safe. His twelve years were spent in a variety of prisons, most of that time up in Crescent City at Pelican Bay, but women prisoners were housed and handled separately. His contacts couldn't help him much. However, both prisoners and prison guards, both knew who he was and feared him – for entirely different reasons.

Suddenly, Crews registered there was someone else in the room.

Normally he noticed things like this right away, but the tall, quiet African American guard was leaning against a wall in a corner and was standing quite still. Only his brown eyes regarded Crews, assessing him. _Friend, foe, threat_… the guard was spinning through the possibilities in his head while watching the tall, pale red haired man in an unguarded moment of complete panic. It was apparent the man cared deeply for the small dark haired girl who looked tough but wasn't nearly as hard as she pretended. Prison taught you these things whether you were a guard or an inmate.

Crews examined the man watching him, "you the one who called?"

"Uh-huh," the man confirmed. After a moment, MacIntyre asked a question of his own, "so you're him?"

"Him - who?" Crews deflected, but he knew what the guard meant. He was the man who killed a guard two years in - without leaving a mark. Everyone knew what had happened, but nothing could be proven. It made Crews both memorable and feared simultaneously in the prison population – on both sides of the fence.

"You're her guy?" the guard wisely lied about the true nature of his question.

"Yep," Crews lied back. At least he thought it was a lie, or maybe it was a truth that had not yet come to pass.

"Lucky guy," the guard complimented Reese without actually saying anything complimentary.

"Yep," Charlie stayed neutral and forced himself to relax, at least to look relaxed.

"So…" the guard offered, "would you like me to leave?"

"You're not allowed to leave the prisoner unsupervised," Charlie recited the rules.

"You remembered," the guard examined his fingernails.

"Some things you never forget," Crews gave the man a truth he could not hide.

"This one's not like you," MacIntyre commented. "She'll never be one of them."

"Nope," Charlie agreed. "She doesn't belong here."

"Did you?" MacIntyre asked a hard, but fair question about the man he knew by name and reputation, but for the first time laid eyes on. He had a bad habit of making his own calls about people, based on his own observations and contacts. It was a habit, which had never failed him, even when it told him something contrary to whatever everyone else believed.

Crews' cocked his head to the side. _Who was this guy? What the hell made him think that he'd ever tell a complete stranger? A guard? Something like that?_

"Why should I tell you?" Crews countered. He failed to keep the threatening, menacing tone from his voice. The guard's nostrils flared and eyes widened slightly. He was afraid – of Crews. _Interesting._

Mac chuckled to demonstrate he wasn't afraid, while his body signaled he clearly was. "You don't have to tell me anything, man."

"But," Charlie strung out the interrogatory.

"I was thinking I could maybe help your girl," Mac offered, "but you don't want my help do you?" Mac smiled; it wasn't a kind smile. It was a cross between a grin and a noiseless snarl. His teeth shone a bright white against his dark lips. "You can't keep her safe in here you know?"

"And you can?" Crews questioned.

"Maybe," the guard offered.

Crews leaned forward balanced lightly on the balls of his feet, "I'm listening."

"You got money right? A lot of money, from what I hear," Mac offered.

"That's right," Charlie smiled knowing where this was headed. If this guard was for sale, then Charlie would buy him. That part was easy.

"I know who hurt her," the guard offered. "You wanna know?"

"So I can what? Have that prisoner harmed?" Crews tried to confirm what the guard was offering.

"What you do with that info is your business?"

"I thought you were offering to look out for her," Crews questioned.

"You of all people must know you can't protect someone in here," Mac countered.

Crews reached for his wallet. He pulled a wad of cash, mostly hundreds from his billfold, "What's…uh… two grand buy me?"

"Five minutes with her – alone," Mac smiled hungrily. "You want the name, it'll cost you ten," he bargained as he reached for the money.

"Ten minutes – alone," Crews countered holding tightly to the money, "and I'll get you another two grand."

"Three," Mac said sounding every bit like a horse trader. "And I know you're good for it because she ain't going anywhere, anytime soon."

"Done," Charlie said releasing the cash. Mac didn't count it, but his hand came up out of habit to shake. He recovered quickly and stuck the offered hand into his pocket.

"One more question," Crews boldly asked, "there are cameras everywhere in here. Don't you worry about someone seeing you take a pay off?"

"Please… man," Mac scoffed. "Everyone inside this joint is getting paid for something."

"Any of them getting paid by inmates?" Crews continued to push.

"You'd know that better than me now wouldn't you?" Mac pushed the door open and on his way out, let Charlie know he knew more than he was saying. "Enjoy your ten minutes Detective."

* * *

"Reese, " Charlie roughly shook his partner awake. He had limited time and no opportunity to be gentle with her. "Reese, wake up," he demanded.

"Stop it," she slurred angrily, "I'm awake – and hurt," she was testy and in pain.

"I'm getting you out of here," he relayed. "Get ready."

"What?" she stalled seeking clarity. For a long moment, until her fuzzy brain engaged fully, she actually entertained the idea that Crews was going to break her out of jail. It was stupid, but flattering. Crews was bold and aggressive, but that was impossible even for him.

"Tidwell's gonna end this tonight," he was firm and unbending.

"I'm getting somewhere," she argued, "I can do this."

"No," he practically shouted at her.

She paled.

"No," he said more calmly but with no less conviction. "That guard?"

"Mac?"

"Yes," he confirmed, whilst smoothing the sheet out against her shoulder, "not a good man," he pointed out.

"He called you when I asked," she countered. She was becoming more alert by the minute because she was arguing with him. She was always arguing with him it seemed, "and …are you touching me again?"

He didn't remove his hand and ignored her comment entirely. "Took four grand to let me have ten minutes alone with you," Charlie showed her the dark side of things. Things she didn't know and things he didn't want her to. "And why am I the only one you object to touching you?"

She didn't have an answer for that. What he was doing felt pretty good and it wasn't the pain meds, it was him - just being there. She didn't trust herself to answer so she placed her own smaller hand over the back of his, holding it in place, she closed her eyes. "Charlie," she began a warning in her tone.

"Shhh…" he cautioned softly and bent to kiss her forehead. "I honestly don't know what to do with you Reese," he admitted. "You're driving me crazy here."

"You're already crazy," she chided lightly.

His lips transferred from her forehead to brush her lips lightly. It was almost a kiss, but the sound of voices in the hallway caused him to withdraw. Despite the pain meds, she felt a pang of distinct loss – a pain not physical, but fair deeper and far more serious.


	4. Chapter 4

**Locked Away – Chapter Four**

"Crews," Tidwell barked sharply as he opened the door, "Where's the guard?"

"In the can," Crews lied. He was finding it easier and easier to lie to Tidwell.

He felt her squeeze his hand and discreetly extricated himself from their clasp before Tidwell could see them. They were cohorts in deceiving their Captain, her lover and it made his heart and his stomach do flips.

Something between he and Reese was changing, something profound and deep.

"She awake?" Tidwell questioned directly.

"Nope," he lied again. "She's out cold."

"Let's go," Tidwell tried to hurry Crews out of the room.

"You're not seriously leaving her here?" he argued incredulous that after her injury Tidwell would leave her undercover.

"This cements her status. Besides, the doc says she's gonna be fine and make a full recovery. No one will suspect her now…" Tidwell reasoned.

"No one will suspect…." Crews bit back his anger, but the ferocity in his tone told of it. "Don't you even want to ask her? What if she gets hurt worse?" he warned.

"She won't," Tidwell assured. "She's tough. She's good police. I know her. She won't want to leave, Crews. Stop trying to be her mother; she's already got one. She's a really nice lady. You should meet her."

Charlie really wanted to hurt Tidwell at that moment for purely male reasons. He reached for his calm, cool, collected Zen side and let the moment pass. "My partner is coming out of here, Captain," he smiled when he said it. "One way or another, this little charade of yours is over."

"Crews you may own a lot of stuff, but you don't own LAPD and you don't own me," Tidwell stood up to the man who deep down scared the shit out of him. He couldn't have known Reese was conscious or he would never have leveled the parting shot he took at Crews.

"It just kills you doesn't it? You got all that money and the one girl you really want…she's mine." Tidwell's smiled smugly. That comment would cost him in ways he couldn't imagine.

Crews didn't acknowledge the comment, but he didn't deny it either.

Silently, with hooded eyes, Dani Reese watched the two men face off. The one who said he loved her versus the one she knew did because he proved it daily. She was beginning to have nagging concerns about both.

_Did Tidwell keep sending her into dangerous situations as Crews argued? Or did Crews simply not trust her? Just how much of what was going on here was about LA County lockup and how much was designed to put Crews back inside again? More and more her life seemed less about her and more about Crews._

One thing she was absolutely certain about was that Dani Reese didn't like the feeling she was being played – by anyone.

* * *

A week later, she was released from the infirmary. She was moved to another cell with a much less menacing cellmate. This woman was a check-kiting expert and small time con artist who talked incessantly, but thanks to three years of enduring Crews' ramblings she was tolerable. It was a welcome respite from the past experiences. She was stiff and sore, but wiser.

Four days later, Mac came to announce she had a visitor. "Hope you're feeling better," he smiled slyly. "Your boyfriend's here."

She expected Crews; she got Tidwell. MacIntyre was far too well informed.

"I'm blown," she told him as soon as the door shut in the private room. "That guy knows way more than he should," she hissed in a terse whisper.

"Relax, you're fine," Tidwell approached, "every UC thinks they are blown – all the time."

"That guard," she explained. "He knows about us. That we're… you know…."

"We're what Dani?" He challenged.

She didn't answer because she was no longer sure of the answer.

"Did you call Crews the other night? When you were hurt?"

"No," she practically yelped. Technically, she hadn't called anyone, Mac did. It was a lie of omission, but one she felt necessary. Later she would think about it for hours.

_Why had she felt it necessary to lie to Tidwell? Was she pissed about his claim of ownership? Was she less connected to Tidwell even though they were sleeping together than Crews – who was… what exactly? More than her partner, less than a lover. She was unsure and yet she was surer of him than the all the other things and people in her life. What did that mean? _

"Lucky guess, huh? I guess he's just got a sixth sense about you," Tidwell commented snidely.

He regrouped while awkwardly trying to hug her and simultaneously dismissing her concerns while questioning her motives. "Come're, I've missed you babe."

She stiff-armed him. "Where's Crews?"

"At work I expect. How the fuck should I know Dani?" Jealousy tinged his tone, "is that who you were expecting?"

"I….no!" she snapped. "He's…I'm just concerned about him. He's…"

"Let's get this straight," Tidwell was annoyed and he made no secret of it. "You're in undercover in prison, where you've been assaulted by your bunkmate, shanked, and hospitalized. You think your cover is blown and you're worried about Crews?"

She stared hard at him, but tucked her tongue into her cheek and didn't answer.

"You two," Tidwell grumbled. "You two are fucking unbelievable."

"Why are you here?" Dani alternated the topic.

"To see what progress you've made," he said neutrally, glad to be off the topic of her partner. "Babe, I've been worried about you," he tried to repair the earlier disagreement. "If you don't think you can handle this….if you're scared, I can…"

She reacted just as he knew she would. "I'm fine," she bit the words off bitterly.

"So…" he questioned.

"Just go," she demanded. And he did.

Mac returned and walked her back to her cell. "Not turning out the way you expected?" he questioned.

She didn't answer.

"People not who you expect them to be?"

She snorted a short laugh in reply.

"People never are… who they say they are…who they pretend to be…who you want them to be," he waxed philosophical.

"Like you?" she took the easy dig. "You're not a good man. Are you Mac?"

"I'm not a rich man, Detective," he offered. "There's a difference. I can't always afford to be good, to take the high road. Besides, no one else does."

"I do," she replied without thinking.

"Do you now?" he laughed. "That why you're fucking your boss and in love with that ex-con partner of yours? Cause you're honest…" he got a good chuckle at her dilemma. "You're not who you pretend to be either. No one is."

Crews' word escaped her lips a fraction of a second before she consciously thought about him saying them. "No one is just one thing," she replied. _Damn him!_ He was inside her head all the time now.

"That's right, sweetheart," Mac grinned. "Now you're learning."

* * *

Her next unscheduled event was a follow-up with the doctor that she hadn't asked for. The doctor was as gruff and unbending as she recalled. He pointed behind the green curtain, and directed, "take off your shirt and drop your pants so I can get a look at your side. You can take ten," the doctor told the waiting guard, "I'm pretty sure I can handle this little one."

She was watching the doctor as she pulled her shirt off over her head and didn't notice Crews lurking behind the curtain until he cleared his throat. She flushed red for no reason she could explain. She'd worn less than this in front of men before and Crews had certainly seen a woman in her bra before, just not her.

He looked down, but glanced back up unable to keep his eyes trained on the floor.

"Ten minutes, young fella," the doctor chuckled. He had no idea what the man wanted with the girl, but he could guess and the tall pale man paid in cash. "I'm grabbing a smoke; the guard will be back soon. Better be quick."

They both heard the door snick shut. Dani made no effort to put her shirt back on. Crews edged closer, but seemed tentative.

"What's up?" she inquired, all business. She was trying hard not to think about the expression of concern on his face and the gentleness in his pale blue eyes.

He seemed stunned speechless for far too long, particularly for a man who talked as much as he usually did.

"Do you want me to get dressed?" she wondered.

"No….uh, yeah, of course, sure," he stumbled over his Freudian slip. When her shirt was over her head and her neck popped from the collar, he was there. So close. His hand brushed her unruly hair from her face. He was touching her – again. He couldn't seem to stop touching her.

"Tidwell send you?" she asked.

He didn't even bother to hide the look of disgust that crossed his face.

"You will not hurt him," she told him. "Tell me that you understand me," she demanded.

He nodded curtly and lifted his head effectively taking himself out of her line of sight. He was not happy with her demand. He wanted to hurt Tidwell and she knew it.

"Crews," she made him look at her again with just her tone. "He didn't put me in here. You don't make things dangerous for me. It's prison. You know that nothing and no one can protect me in here."

This time his nod was acquiescence and acceptance came wrapped in his heavy sigh.

"You're not my mother and ten minutes after I get done here, he's no longer my boyfriend, but I can't do this and referee you two also," she chastised him. She was still the senior partner, still in charge, even in here.

He didn't comment on her disclosure about Tidwell. She loved him in that moment. He didn't assume that her choice was about him. "What have you learned?" he asked neutrally.

She was grateful for his sliding right by her commentary. It wasn't something she intended to say, but all the time alone made her own voice seem loud inside her head. "That you can buy anyone and anything in here," she said wryly.

"I coulda told you that," he replied quietly, "saved you a scar." He gestured at her side. "Lemme see," his request wasn't a question. It was a directive.

She lifted the edge of her shirt and a puckered pink scar with black-knotted sutures appeared. He didn't blink or wince. Instead he lifted his own shirt and showed her a long thin white line, "they almost gutted me once. The lid of a vegetable can stolen from the kitchen. Nasty cut, took weeks to heal."

"We are not comparing scars," although they had clearly just done so.

She pulled her shirt down and reached for his to pull his shirt down too, but his other hand arrested hers before it reached his belly. He forced himself to stop and withdraw his hand, he had just seen her shirtless – it was quid pro quo he guessed.

For some reason she would later wonder about, she touched his abdomen and flattened her head along the length of the scar across his belly. The musculature there tensed at her touch and his brows shot north at the intimacy of the gesture. She didn't stop and her touch became exploration. _Geez, she'd only been in prison a month and even Crews was making her horny_ she deflected.

Moments later another part of his anatomy began to notice her touch. Embarrassed he removed her hand. "I want…" he started and then licked his lips. He meant to say, "you out of here," but he wanted so much more at the moment that everything that came after seemed woefully inadequate. "Come home?" he requested.

"A couple more weeks," she promised. The exchange was that of a couple, not police detective partners. Their separation had only brought them closer together, just as the last one had. It was getting harder to ignore for both of them.


	5. Chapter 5

**Locked Away – Chapter Five**

He was laying in his bed on a Saturday night, when the call came. He should have been with any of half a dozen girls who'd thrown themselves at him in the past week. Drinking, canoodling and generally enjoying himself, but he couldn't something was missing. That something was Dani Reese.

Truth be known he'd been thinking about Reese all week, maybe all month. He spent a restless all night Friday after work, and took a long tiring run late in the afternoon Saturday, collapsing into bed after his shower, but she was still there – in his thoughts. She was so close to being out of that place, but he knew that was when things were most dangerous. He'd seen so many guys get killed right before they were released or paroled – more than he'd care to recall.

His cell rang and it was Tidwell. Something in the man's voice told Crews it was real and serious before much information was relayed. There was nothing there but shock and a mild tinge of terror hiding behind a professional veneer. "Crews, Dani…Detective Reese," he stumbled trying to maintain that air of separation Crews knew he didn't possess. "She got in another fight."

Charlie counted the flashes behind his eyes in the eternity it took Tidwell to spit out the rest. He knew – either she was dead or she'd had to kill her assailant. He prayed for the latter knowing all the while either eventuality would change Reese in ways she couldn't imagine, but that he knew intimately.

"Crews? The other inmate….she's dead." Tidwell gutted out the disclosure, which was more of a confession now than news. He knew, without Tidwell saying, he just knew. Crews had predicted worse would come and now it had.

"How's Reese?" Crews asked. His concern was only for her. Physically he knew she'd be fine; but I would take a toll on her. Taking a life always did, he knew better than most.

"I think you should come," Tidwell. "She's quiet, really quiet. She's not like herself at all. I can't even get her to yell and me – I've tried." The trueness of what he said came not only in his words, but that he spoke them in panic. Crews almost felt empathy for the man for in Tidwell's tone he could feel the true affection the other man bore Dani. It had to hurt for him to make that call. "Could you…"

"Already on my way," Crews said grabbing a jacket. "I'm bringing a lawyer. Don't let them talk to her," he warned.

"She doesn't need…" Tidwell began.

"For once," Crews snapped through tightly clenched teeth, "will you listen to me?"

This time the Captain did as the ex-con counseled.

* * *

Charlie called Constance Griffiths and explained he "needed" her. Connie couldn't say no. She still pined for the Charlie Crews that needed her. She didn't know she was just a prop to get him in a room alone with Reese. After tonight, she'd never be that for him again.

"I'm Detective Reese's counsel and I'd like to talk to her alone," Constance said with command in her tone. The guards left immediately.

Reese didn't even make eye contact. She was sitting hunched over in a steel chair that was bolted to the floor. Tidwell's suit jacket was draped over her shoulders and her hands were in her lap shackled at the wrist. Her hands shook almost imperceptibly, but Charlie noticed the tremors she fought to contain. She was garbed in prison orange and dark crimson stain on her thigh was drying blood. _Someone else's blood, _Crews thought. He concentrated on the fact that she was alive whole and would be home soon, if changed forever. His face was mask, emotionless and eerily calm.

"I need everyone to leave, Captain," Constance pushed Tidwell from the room with the firmness in her voice.

Only when Tidwell was ten paces gone did Crews speak and it was to Constance.

"Leave," he demanded.

"Charlie, I…." she started to argue, but his eyes were hard and cold.

"Go…" he pointed at the door. She did and in that moment she knew that he didn't "need" her at all. He'd used her to get what he wanted and what Charlie Crews wanted was time alone with his partner. She was all that mattered to him and it was painted all over his face for her now – plain as day.

"Don't you ever do this to me again," she hissed in anger and betrayal.

But he didn't hear her because all his attention was focused on the small dark woman in orange seated before him. He knelt at her feet and took her shaking hands in his. "Reese," he spoke her name as a question as he'd done so many times before. She needed familiarity, routine and knowns while she walked a dark and unknown path.

Slowly, she licked her lips, shook her head and looked up. The pain behind her eyes was heartbreaking, "you told me. I wouldn't listen, but you tried to…"

"Shhhh…" he soothed and reached forward smoothing her hair back and exposing salty trails where tears had tread along her cheek. "I'm taking you home now, okay?"

She nodded and bit her trembling lip.

"Are you okay?" he held her hands and looked up into her eyes.

"I'm…" she started to lie to him, just like she did to everyone else, but she couldn't. Crews knew, he'd always known; if she'd have only listened. Her reply came out as a choked sob, "no."

He pulled her closer and felt her lean against his shoulder and neck. "It'll be okay. Not tonight, not tomorrow, but we'll get through this – together."

She knew he meant every word that he'd never leave, never desert her, never betray or walk away from her or ignore the hard stuff, the tough questions, the long nights. He was there, tonight, tomorrow and he always would be.

"Do you love me Charlie?" she wondered.

"Uh-huh," he replied without thought. He knew it and it was time she did too.

"Don't you want to know what happened?" she begged.

"Prison happened. Things you can't control, can't explain, can't understand. We can talk about this any time you want to, or we never have to," he confirmed as an expression crossed her face that he read as confusion.

"Tidwell says…" she began.

"Don't listen to him," he nearly begged. "Listen to me," he pled with his partner to trust him. "We have to get you out of those cuffs and out of this place – now – tonight," he explained patiently and put on his most winsome smile for her while his heart was breaking for his partner. "You - home- safe is all that matters now."

Her grin was one he'd remember forever. She tried to smile for him. Her eyes held pain and a sadness that would last beyond the bruises, cuts and scars, but she was not beaten. She was tougher than people thought and he'd make sure she wasn't alone through this. There'd be an inquiry, a suspension, maybe even a trial, but he would never leave her side. It was important that she knew that and she felt his support. The hard part was still to come.

* * *

"No!" Tidwell shouted. "That's one of my Detectives and she's not staying anywhere tonight but in her own house." He was arguing with the warden although it was unclear who was winning. The cop in Crews decided a fellow officer always deserved back up.

"Excuse me," Charlie interrupted. "I'm taking Detective Reese home, anything you two need before we leave?"

Tidwell looked relieved; the warden looked impossibly angry at the interruption.

Apparently, it was not at all decided that Reese was leaving. That made Charlie play his strongest cards of the evening. Stronger than bringing a high priced attorney, stronger than anything he could summon with his body. Charlie used fear to his advantage and he was masterful at it. "Oh," Charlie put on his most charming smile and extended his hand. "We haven't been formally introduced. I'm Charlie Crews."

The man mutely shook Crews proffered hand.

"Maybe you remember me better as Inmate 27152," Charlie kept smiling and shaking. The warden wanted his hand back, but Crews wouldn't give it up. He held the man's eyes and his hand firmly. "I was through here back in 97 on my way upstate. Place hasn't changed much."

The warden paled, now the dots were connecting for him.

"We all good here?"

The warden nodded. Fear was a powerful thing and Crews it used sparingly, but he hadn't forgotten how to intimidate whether it was with his physical strength or his wealth. This man knew him and he feared him. It didn't matter to Charlie what he feared – only that he did and that it worked.

He, Reese and Tidwell walked out the front gate and as Charlie steered her toward his car and set her inside the front seat before kneeling before her again this time to remove her cuffs. "Be still," he counseled. "We're going home now."

He shut the door and turned to face Tidwell.

The Captain exhaled a heavy sigh and ran his hand through his mop of brown hair. He wanted to speak, but had no idea what to say. _You were right. I fucked up. Thanks for backing me up._ He had no words. Crews provided his own.

"You're going to take a lot of heat and you're going to handle it all," Crews spoke plainly. "Don't call her, don't come to the house," he warned. "You take care of the Department; I'll take care of her." Tidwell nodded mutely, turned and left.

As he climbed in the car, he told her what she knew but needed to hear, "you're safe now." She eased noticeably and the tiredness hit her like a wall. She was asleep before he turned onto the highway. It was the first time she'd fully relaxed in over a month. Her head lolled on the passenger headrest and Crews brushed a lock of hair from her cheek. The hard part was still to come.

* * *

_Author's Note: This one ain't over folks, but it might be some time until I can update again. I'm traveling out of the country and my internet connection will be spotty at best. LMK if this story is resonating and what unresolved things I've left dangling that I need to clean up for the finish. I've dabbled in the last couple stories in character studies rather than plot based adventures and find it rich territory for two such fascinating and complex people. Feedback isn't my sole motivator but it's important. _


	6. Chapter 6

**Locked Away – Chapter Six**

It always happened the same way.

No matter how much she wanted to - she couldn't change the outcome.

The woman came at her with the makeshift knife; it glared brilliantly in the afternoon sun slicing towards her. But Dani was small, quick and light. She used the woman's momentum to pull her past her intended target Dani's chest, during the attempted blow. The crack in the pavement was slight and unnoticed but just enough to trip the woman who tumbled to her doom. The shank ended up buried to the hilt in her chest between her ribs on the left side, opposite the hand she hand the blade in.

The woman looked terrified, surprised and amused all at the same time. She bubbled and gurgled as her lungs filled with blood.

There was so much blood as Dani turned the woman over trying to aid her.

That wasn't what bothered her; as a homicide detective; buckets of blood came with the territory. It was the look of terror and panic in the woman's eyes that she couldn't forget. Fear and the knowledge that death was present in that moment those things stayed with her, after lockup, after the jumpsuit, after the bunked beds, after the anti-septic smell gave way to real food and real sheets – it stayed.

She woke again for the fifth night in a panicked sweat. Her recollection was so real, she could smell the blood, taste the copper in the back of her throat, but she wasn't there anymore, she was here. She told herself that as she climbed from the deep bedding one of Crews' ten guestrooms in his huge empty sounding house.

They hadn't decided she'd stay there. They hadn't even talked about it. He took her home and she stayed with him because it was where they both knew she needed to be. There was consensus without discussion. That meant something, but she didn't know what yet, she thought as he drank in guilty gulps of air in her post nightmare regimen. She then walked to the bathroom, splashed cold water on her face and looked into her own haunted eyes. She looked terrible and felt worse. She was in the cool quiet of a house as silent as a tomb.

Prison was never quiet. There as banging and clanging, scratching and pawing, sibilant whispers and horns and claxons; the eerie keening of pain and crying of poor souls and odder still occasionally singing. But never silence, which she was discovering, was a sound you could actually hear. She remembered all those disjointed comments that Crews made when they were first partnered. At the time they made him seem unhinged or not right, but now they rang completely true for her.

He was here somewhere; perhaps in his room, perhaps on the stone patio where he sat in meditation for hours. He'd never once asked her for a thing. Not a single detail about what happened, not why, not how. He demanded nothing of her. Instead he was her rock, her protector and on dark nights her shepherd sitting by her bedside keeping watch, holding her hand and her heart so gently like either could break.

He offered to take her to see her mother, or to bring her mother to her, but she wasn't ready for that. In fact she wasn't ready for anyone now – except him.

All the time she'd been partnered with Crews he'd made indistinct unprompted comments about prison and they came back to her in snippets of his past – an experience she now shared in some small, truncated way. She knew her short experience inside paled in comparison to his storied past. A past gone, so long ago and so far away it felt like another lifetime.

He was careful not to do that; not to compare his experience to hers. Each experience was unique and yet somehow they were all the same. But it was how he knew what would happen; and that she'd need space and time, but also comfort and security to recover. She wondered who did those things for him. _Who provided Charlie Crews with peace, comfort and stability? Was it his lawyer?_ She was beautiful, statuesque, educated, accomplished and clearly in love with him, but for some reason she sensed an aloofness in him, when in came to Constance Griffiths.

* * *

She found the object of her musing standing barefoot, dressed in his pajama bottoms and a navy blue t-shirt in front of a wall of windows in his bedroom examining the moon in the same way he sometimes stared at the sun – as though it held answers, as though it could heal him. But she knew better now, he'd never be healed or whole. He was fractured and the pieces were too disparate to ever fit together properly again. She felt it in herself as well – that tenseness, the coiled fear that lay in her belly that one time when she opened her eyes she'd be back inside, in her bunk, in her cell, in her own personal hell.

He felt her enter the room and pad quietly to stand beside him. She wanted to speak, but didn't know what to say. He reached for her hand and held it gently.

"It'll get better. It takes time," he confirmed softly. "It took months before I could sleep through the night," he explained in a quiet tone as though the silence might break.

"Am I gonna stay her? With you as my own personal….whatever…until then?"

"I am your own personal…whatever," he smiled slyly repeating her description, "for as long as you need one."

"What if I never get past this?" she whispered hoarsely emotion thick in her voice.

"You will," he squeezed her hand and pulled it to his chest holding it against his heart. His strong heart beat a solid steady rhythm against the back of her hand. It soothed her, just as the intake of his breath in measured spaces did.

"I did," he explained without her having to ask.

She turned and faced him in the moonlight, as she had each of the previous four nights prepared to ask to stay with him, again.

"You don't have to ask," he ran his fingers through her hair brushing it back from her face. "I like sleeping with you, Reese," he reminded her. He kept things light by joking, "It's kinda like surveillance…only you don't drool on me."

"Once," she warned through gritted teeth, "that happened once. Are you ever gonna let that go?" There was a single strand of mirth in her voice; it was the first time he'd heard that instrument in her orchestra in weeks.

"Hey, that was a very nice suit you drooled on," he kidded prolonging the moment.

She started to laugh and stopped herself. It felt wrong to feel joy.

"It's okay," he coached. "You can laugh," he looked down at her smiling in the moonlight. "It won't change what happened. That's in the past and some day you'll be happy again. Don't feel guilty for laughing Reese. You have a beautiful laugh."

Many men had complimented Dani Reese, the descriptor "beautiful" was even employed, but it always about her body, eyes or hair sometimes even her smile; never about her laugh.

Crews was so very different than other men she'd known. She wondered if the novelty of him would wear off as it did for her with most men. He had gone from annoying to familiar to comfortable, but for right now was just what she needed.

"So surveillance except for the screaming and thrashing part," she joked darkly.

"Except for the screaming and thrashing and drooling," he confirmed with a gentle smile.

His smile in unguarded moments did things to her; things neither of them were ready for, but things she felt deep in her soul.

"Come' on, let's get you back to bed," he offered leading her by the hand to his bed.

She climbed in first from his side and scooted across under the thick duvet. Even though it was LA, Crews kept his house cold and the sun woke them in the morning as it sliced through open windows heating the house and the people in it.

As he slid in beside her, she turned and curled against his side, draping an arm across his stomach. Her hand rested out of habit above the scar he'd shown her. Even if she couldn't see it, she knew it was there. Crews' fading battle scar was evidence that even the deepest wounds healed in time. So too would hers.

He slid an arm under her pillow and her head rested on his shoulder. At first, it had been awkward, but now it felt like coming home – sleeping in Charlie Crews' embrace. He'd never once attempted anything remotely sexual. Nothing beyond a chaste kiss on her forehead if she rose from sleep mumbling something unintelligible, but it was there all the time – the fact that he loved her; they both knew it. She fell fast asleep wrapped securely in his arms and in the knowledge that this man loved her and he always would.

* * *

During the day, Dani lounged by the pool as her many bruises, scrapes and scars healed. Sometimes she read, often she listened to music on her iPod. Crews brought a number of things from her house for her: clothes, toiletries, her iPod, the books she was using to study for the Lieutenant's exam – almost anything she could want.

She didn't ask how he got into her apartment; she didn't want to know.

Crews, for his part, stayed in his own space, tinkering on the computer, practicing, meditative poses, running long hours in the canyons surrounding his home or cooking, which he appeared fairly good at. Evenings, Crew made simple dinners for them, which they ate quietly at his rather large dining room table, until it became too odd. Afterwards, they took their meals at the island in his kitchen. Some nights they talked, some they didn't, but it was comfortable and safe. They both came to enjoy their time together in the waning light of each day.

* * *

Tidwell, as promised did not call and did not visit. His absence was welcome respite for Reese. She wasn't ready to deal with the drama that came from Crews and Tidwell in the same space. She thought she'd miss him more than she did, but that was just another reason why when she did see him again it would be the last time that she saw him – outside of work.

Constance Griffiths however had made no such promises and she was still stinging from Crews' use of her several days prior. So it wasn't surprising when she drove her sleek Mercedes coupe into the drive one afternoon. Charlie met her in the driveway.

"So, we're not even going in the house?" she questioned caustically as Dani listen from an open upstairs window.

"Reese needs peace, Constance," he said patiently, "and you're angry with me."

"No! Charlie, I'm pissed at you," she snapped with tears in her eyes. "Is everything about her now? What happened to us Charlie?"

"There never was an 'us', Connie," he stated calmly but firmly. Then he tried to explain, but being Crews he did it obliquely through the use of questions. "Why did you fight so hard for me? To get me out?"

"Because you were innocent," she protested.

"Maybe…. when I was when I went in…but not by the time we met," it was brutally honest and absolutely true.

She pouted, but that's not a real response so again he pushed, "Really tell me why fight so hard for someone you barely know? Why invest so much?"

"I thought you needed someone to believe in you," she confessed. "You'd given up on life, your life, yourself."

"But that's not the only reason why is it?" he challenged again. "Part of it was because you were a little in love with me, with the idea of me being innocent, or the idea of saving me, right?"

"You know I loved you, Charlie," she sobbed helplessly, "I still love you."

"And I told you I couldn't do that, Constance," he repeated. "I can't be that for you." He repeated his objection to any further romantic contact even though he knew she wanted it. "You're married."

"I know," she told him, "but…"

"You thought there'd be some other way?" he offered.

She nodded and the tears stopped.

"There isn't, Constance," he said plainly.

"What saved me wasn't you," he told her something he'd never told anyone. "Not that I don't appreciate being out of prison," he smiled one of his low wattage grins that were most women's weakness.

Then he told her the rest. "It wasn't getting out of prison that freed me," as serious and as honest as he'd ever been with anyone. "What saved me, what freed me…was surprisingly enough…Ted. Well, helping Ted. It made me realize that I could still do good, still do right, still help others and that is what saved me – it saved my mind and my soul. You rescued me from prison, for which I will always be grateful, but what saved me was letting go of my hate and forgetting about the self, MY self."

"That's Zen isn't it?" Constance asked, but Dani had just mouthed the exact same question from her perch above. The synchronicity made Dani frown.

Charlie nodded in response and stepped closer to Connie. "Just as devoted as you were to getting me out, that's how determined I was to get Reese out of that place, no difference. But I can't save her, she has to do that for herself."

"Does that mean you're a little in love with her too?" Constance pushed a sore point. She was jealous of the dark haired diminutive detective.

"I'm completely in love with her," he confessed. "But I am all wrong for her and she doesn't feel that way about me." He chuckled adding, "it seems we are all destined to love the wrong person."

"She's a very lucky girl," Connie commented sadly.

"She may not think so," he laughed running a hand through his short red hair. "To tell you the truth, I don't think she likes me much."

He paused a then ran his hands down both the lawyer's arms ending at her wrists and holding her hands and her eyes. "I'm sorry I hurt you Connie, but you must know that there's nothing I won't do for her, no rule I won't break, no sacrifice I won't make."

"I do," she admitted, "better than most people."

He kissed her on the forehead, she climbed in her car and left. Dani leaned against the wall near the window where she'd eavesdropped stunned beyond belief. She didn't understand why he'd value her more that Constance Griffiths, but then as Tidwell was fond of saying "the heart wants what the heart wants."

She wondered if she'd ever understand Crews. He's just passed up a brilliant, attractive, successful woman who loved him - for her. Although she'd never shown him any indication of reciprocal interest or affection, the idea was beginning to germinate in the dark recesses of her mind that she could love this broken and scarred man. And perhaps only she could.


	7. Chapter 7

**Locked Away – Chapter Seven**

Nine days after she'd been sprung Dani started to get antsy. She wanted to be alone.

Despite the fact, she was alone most of the time; she always knew he was there – somewhere. He never hovered, bothered or pestered her, but she wanted her own space and she felt she was ready. When she came to him to talk, he had a simple question, "is it time?" It was as if he knew. He smiled at her surprised and offered an unasked explanation. "You need your space; to know that you can be alone."

"You know," he pointed at himself, "this, I, will always be here."

"It's not that I'm not grateful," she began.

"Dani," he chastised with his tone, but not the words. "I went through the same thing. You don't need to stay here, I just want you to know that you can. My door is always open."

"I know," she scowled and then joked with him, "I've been meaning to talk to you about that. You should really lock your house. In liquor alone, there's a small fortune here."

He cocked his head to the side at her mention of the prodigious alcohol collection, mostly scotch he kept in the den. He didn't think she knew about that; he hoped she wasn't using it.

She seemed to notice his concern. "Relax, I haven't been sampling it, but you did leave me alone…a lot. And I'm a cop…so I'm nosy."

"I'm just glad you didn't find Ted's porn collection," he joked lightly.

"Oh, it's Ted's porn collection is it?" she questioned with lightness in her tone.

"Yeah," he scoffed and continued the joke, "I never look at that stuff."

"Right," she deadpanned sarcastically.

He seemed mildly embarrassed and quickly switched subjects, "I'll just take you home then." He volunteered.

"Yes, home….to my liquor and porn collections," she smiled darkly. Her wicked sense of humor was returning. It was one of the thinking he liked best about Dani Reese, her biting wit and caustic sense of humor. In her hands, sarcasm was a super power and she employed it frequently. It was one way he knew she was getting past it.

* * *

Safely inside her own home for the first time in almost three months, Dani breathed a long ragged sigh of relief. It wasn't much, but it was hers and it made her nearly weep to be there. Crews had been wonderful. _No, wonderful didn't begin to describe it_, but after the first week she began to wish for the comfort of her own lumpy bed and smell of her own sheets. As nice as his place was; it wasn't home. She tried to thank him as she climbed from his sleek black car, but he rebuffed her with a simple statement.

"You don't owe me anything, I just want you to be happy and feel safe. I'm glad you're back, Reese. I've missed you."

She wanted to hug him; she didn't.

When he sped away, she felt his absence and it was a feeling she didn't expect. It was a dull pain in her chest, almost like heartache, _but that wasn't possible; she didn't feel that way about Crews. Did she?_

She took a bath and fell into bed and didn't dream, didn't wake, she just slept.

* * *

A persistent knock at her door woke her. It was late in the morning judging from the amount of strong LA sunlight filtering through her window. She stumbled to the door expecting a cheerful Crews offering coffee with a dazzling smile.

Instead she got a dour Tidwell and two uniformed cops.

"Detective," Tidwell greeted her neutrally. "Internal affairs insists that you speak with them about the incident at County," his forced formal air pissed her off. A month ago she was intimate with this man who was now pulling anxiously at his collar. Then she looked closer.

Tidwell wasn't nervous about her. He kept looking behind him at the uniforms. They weren't normal uni's. These men were senior and serious. They were there to ensure that Dani Reese didn't say "no." That, however, is exactly what she did.

"Uh," she began and then with practiced laziness meant to infer she wasn't at all freaked about them showing up on her doorstop to bring her in. "I'm kinda not ready for visitors…" she stated the obvious. "I can meet you at the station in a couple hours," she yawned conspicuously and everyone held their breath. "That is…unless I'm under arrest," she played coy deliberately.

"No," Tidwell yelped. "This is just a formality. For the record," he stammered. "Just so they can close the inquiry. Nothing more." His protests seemed coerced and Reese watched him closely. There were benefits to knowing someone intimately; you knew things about them that others missed. Like the way Tidwell rubbed his hands together; right thumb over his left; he only did that when nervous or agitated. Something was not right and her senses told her so.

She smiled and agreed to a meeting at 2PM. Never mind that she hadn't the foggiest idea what time it currently was. She needed only five seconds to speed dial Crews. He'd know what to do and when to do it.

* * *

"Crews," he barked into the phone. He hadn't bothered to look at it so he assumed the "blocked number" came from work.

"It's me," she said quickly.

"Hey," his voice assumed a smooth even tone and she could hear him smiling in his voice. It was crazy how much hearing the smile in his voice and imagining it on his face calmed her. "You sleep okay?"

"Tidwell and two guys from the goon squad were just here," she advised. "I agreed to meet them at 2PM to give a formal statement."

"Guess it's time to get you a real lawyer," he said tersely.

"Do I need one? I mean it was self-defense," she showed her naïveté.

"Yeah, and I was innocent," his sarcasm was thick, but with purpose. "If they want you, they'll get you. Doesn't matter if you did it or not."

"Crews," she questioned strongly. "Was this whole thing about LA County? Or was it about you?"

"I don't know," he told her honestly.

"But you've thought about the possibility that this…" she began.

"Was them using you to get to me?" he finished. "Yes."

"I hate that it's even possible," she growled. "That we even have to think about the possibility that someone died because they are still trying to find a way to get to you."

"I hate it too," he confirmed glumly.

"Can you be Zen and hate?" she joked darkly.

"It may surprise you," he said in a bit of biting humor of his own, "but I'm not quite as Zen as I pretend to be."

"No shit," she deadpanned.

"I'll pick you up at your place at 1:30. I'll bring a lawyer – a real lawyer – this time," he was all business. "And Reese? If anyone asks I'm your PBA rep, okay? It gets me in the room with you. And once there I won't leave."

"Can you do that?" she wondered, knowing he would whether it was legal or not.

"Impersonate a PBA rep? Sure," he said with absolute conviction.

She clicked off without saying goodbye, but a smile remained on her face. If they thought they'd use her to get to Charlie Crews, "they" had another thing coming.

Crews grimaced and announced the empty air and world in general his current philosophy on impersonating members of the police benevolent association, "you can do anything – once."


	8. Chapter 8

**Locked Away – Chapter Eight**

He swung to the curb in front of Dani Reese's apartment about 1:15PM and told the expensive lawyer in the three thousand dollar black Tom Ford suit with the purple tie to, "get in the back," as he climbed from the car. The lawyer was dumbfounded but precisely as he was told. The very rich cop instructed thoroughly and paid handsomely and he wasn't about to arguing about who sat where.

Crews himself was dressed in a nice Armani suit of olive green with a khaki colored shirt, a muted tie in earth tones and a pair of brown Johnston Murphy wingtips. He straightened his tie and then struck the front door of his partner's apartment soundly with all the knuckles of his right hand. While waiting, he glanced at the man quietly climbing into the backseat of his car. The lawyer was in his mid to late 40's, with a thick head of hair and a suitable pedigree. Constance said he was a notable defense attorney with a proven record of sticking it to the cops and that was enough for Charlie. Plus he paid him twice the man's hourly rate for freeing up his schedule with no notice.

Crews' instructions were simple. "Don't let them talk to her," he told the man.

"I don't know any of the case particulars," the lawyer objected.

"You don't need to," Crews said sternly. "Just don't…"

"Let them talk to her," the man repeated. "I got it."

The door opened behind him and he turned to find Reese still not dressed. "Come in," she bade and walked away from the open door.

"You're not dressed," he stated the obvious.

"Thanks Captain Obvious," she said sarcastically. "I can't figure out….It just feels weird…" she searched for the right way to explain the difficulty she was having.

"Too wear clothes again? After just prison orange and sweats for the past couple months?" he confirmed. It had for him too. It took awhile before he felt like he wasn't playing dress up with his dad's clothes.

She nodded. It figured that Crews would understand. He always did; it never failed.

"What are you most comfortable in?" he asked her thoughtfully.

"This," she gestured to the jeans and black tank top she was wearing.

"Then wear that," he offered.

She scowled fiercely.

"See," he pointed, "there's the Dani Reese I know and love. Where's your jacket?" he continued talking past his unprompted profession. 'The brown one you wore all the time when we first started?" He was going through her closet when her hand on his arm stopped him.

"Crews," she held him gently. "You don't have to be embarrassed about it. I know."

He turned and gave her a quizzical look; then his eyes focused on her shoes. "I'm sorry, I don't want to add to your stress," he apologized.

"Don't be sorry," she pulled him close by his lapel. "It's been too long since someone felt the way about me that you do." She didn't deliberate; she did what was in her heart kissing him quickly. "Now let's not keep your friends at IAD waiting." She wheeled and left just as quickly.

His lips burned from the fierceness of her kiss. He licked his bottom lip and tasted coffee and chocolate. All the times he'd thought about the first time he'd kiss Dani Reese, this was never the way it went. But then it figured that Reese would not stand idly by until he worked up the courage to softly touch his mouth to hers or that she would melt under his loving gaze. She was in charge of every facet of her life – or so she thought. He knew little of life is under our control, not even who we love or who loves us in return.

"Crews," she barked.

"Coming," he smiled as he heard the snap in her voice, the one he knew, the one that said she was good and getting better all the time. She'd never be the same, but no one is the same forever.

* * *

Tidwell looked positively green like someone who'd eaten a lot and been on too many carnival rides. He rose only slightly from his desk when he saw them enter the squad bay: Reese in her jeans, a burgundy leather jacket and dark blouse, trailing Crews and an expensive lawyer. Tidwell recognized the lawyer from the bus advertisements; he was a high priced defense counsel and ambulance chaser.

Charlie locked eyes with Tidwell and shook his head slightly. It was a "back off" signal if ever there was one. Tidwell ignored him entirely.

"Hey, Detective Reese," Tidwell made a big show of greeting her loudly and publicly.

"Welcome back," he smiled broadly, "you've been missed by everyone." He looked around the bay for confirmation and lots of heads that had been watching the show went back to their computers, phones or paperwork. Not one single person chimed in.

"Yeah," Dani said caustically, "I can tell."

"Crews," Tidwell said in acknowledgement of Dani's shadow, but his tone was laced with contempt.

"Captain," Crews replied somewhat neutrally, but with a heavily amount of distaste. "This is Bart Mannon, Defense Counsel." The lawyer completely unaware of the personal dynamic at work shook Tidwell's hand and smiled blithely.

"They're in here," Tidwell showed Dani and Mannon towards Interview Room 2. He tried to stop Crews at the door with his body.

"Get out of my way," Crews rumbled through gritted teeth. There was no neutrality in his tone, but it was low and only for Tidwell's ears.

"Uh, Detective Crews…" one of the two nondescript IAD suits tried to dismiss him too, "we'll just need Detective Reese, her counsel and her PBA rep, if she wants one, for this interview."

"Oh, I'm her PBA rep," Crews said brightly.

Everyone in the room, except Reese, looked stunned.

"You're a PBA rep?" Tidwell questioned.

"Yep," Charlie grinned and then quickly steered the Captain by the arm out of the room. "Everyone got a seat? Great! Let's get started," he chirped with far too much frivolity for an IAD interview.

* * *

Two hours later, the frustrated and flummoxed IAD suits left. They were stymied at nearly every point by either Crews' annoying Zen anecdotes, a mute Dani Reese or a repentant but staunch, "I'm afraid my client can't answer that," response from Mannon.

"You're not a friggin PBA rep," Tidwell whined under his breath to Crews as the IAD guys handed out business cards and excused themselves.

"Sure, I am," Crews boasted. "I'm police. I'm benevolent – to most people," his tone darkened. "And Reese and I are associated…ergo Police Benevolent Association."

"You're not on any of their rosters," Tidwell pointed out.

"Well," Crews turned and stared the Captain down taking full advantage of his several inches of height. "They have administrative burdens that outweigh their ability to keep accurate records. There has been a awful lot of police misconduct lately." He shook his head and made "tsk, tsk" sounds until Reese and her lawyer approached.

Mannon was thanked - quietly Crews and profusely by Reese and he caught a cab back to his office elsewhere in the city center.

Crews took Reese by the hand and led her to his waiting car in the parking garage. He said nothing along the way, but held her hand in the elevator, on the walk to the car and only released it when he'd put her safely in passenger seat. He rounded the car, sat down and shut his door, but did nothing else. They sat quietly together until finally Reese started to laugh.

At first, she sniggered and quickly stifled herself; then she looked at Crews and saw him grinning at her like and idiot. She began to laugh harder and his smile split into a genuine laugh. It was relief and release for both of them. They laughed until tears formed in the corners of her eyes and she had trouble breathing. She begged him to stop and he complied placing his hand over his mouth and willing himself to stop.

The car was still and silent for a moment, until he reached down unbuckled his seatbelt and deliberately leaned across the space separating them and kissed her.

It wasn't like their first kiss. She'd been in control there. She'd surprised him and he hadn't found his rhythm or footing, but here he was the aggressor. He kissed her as if kissing her was all he'd thought about all day, perhaps all week. She found her hands on him before she could recall putting them there. His tie was askew and shirt unbuttoned when the need for oxygen drove them apart.

"Maybe we should go somewhere," he suggested.

"Your place," she told him without any doubts in her mind. This man was going to be the death of her, but she was pretty sure she loved him anyway.

* * *

At his house, the sun was setting low in the sky and he rounded the car and led her by the hand, first into the house, then up the stairs into his bedroom. It was a room they had shared many times before, but this time would be different.

He stopped when they faced the bed and turned to look at her. His tie was still crooked and his shirt wildly unbuttoned. He looked like he'd been attacked, she realized and maybe he had….by her.

She reached for his tie and gently removed it, and then she finished his buttons as he shed his jacket. It fell with a soft crump into a heap on the floor. He pulled her tightly against him and fused his mouth hers as he undid his own cuffs behind her back. Her hands feverishly pushed the expensive shirt from his chest and shoulders. Only his white undershirt remained and she pulled insistently at it when his hands stopped hers and he pulled back.

"Dani," he said breathlessly, "there's a lot more than scars under there." His eyes held a warning. She watched him carefully for a moment while his breath returned and waited for the rest. "Remember those tattoos I said I had?"

She nodded.

"They're not pretty," he cautioned.

She stepped back and slowly, deliberately, took off her own shirt, pants and shoes. All that remained were her bra and panties, a nice matching ensemble of satiny burgundy fabric and lace. They were supposed to be attractive undergarments, but next to the skin of Dani Reese, they seemed pale and lusterless. She watched him watch her.

"I wanna see them, Crews," she told him while holding his eyes. "I wanna know what happened to you in there." They'd never talked about prison before. It was alluded to, hinted at, but it was a subject they'd deliberately avoided before. She was removing the final barriers between them and baring her soul as well as her body and she wanted him to do the same.

"Come to bed with me Charlie," she purred. She turned and as she'd done so many times before in the past week, she climbed into the bed, slid over and made room for him.

He knew part of this was lunacy, that they were both too broken, too damaged to do this long term. Part of their instinct to celebrate was the "high" of escaping the gloom of prison and then trouncing the IAD men soundly. They were drunk on life and it wouldn't last, but he couldn't stop himself. He'd been with a multitude of women since getting out of prison, but none that he'd fantasized more about than the tanned, dark haired beauty awaiting him now. It took a good fifteen seconds for his brain to divert the blood currently flowing to other areas and instruct his body to move. Part of him couldn't believe he was here, she was here and they were about to be one; but he licked his lips, took off his shoes and pants and climbed into bed beside her.


	9. Chapter 9

**Locked Away – Chapter Nine**

In the end, Charlie elected to spend his evening simply touching, tasting and teasing Dani Reese. She responded to his many ministrations with an openness he'd only hoped for, dreamed about, but never expected to see. Each time her eyes rolled back and a deep groan and shudder left her body, he smiled in happiness. Afterwards, he laid still holding her as she recovered.

She was quiet as drew circles around or traced the edges of his many scars and tattoos. Eventually, she asked sincere deep and intense questions and he gave her the honesty she deserved. He told her things he'd never told anyone, some things he'd never even admitted to himself before their night, that night together.

He restrained himself and would not take the easy pleasure she freely offered. She was too raw, too fresh from release and he instinctively guarded that part of her from that part of him. After four trips to her well, his tongue and hands had teased every ounce of pleasure he could provide for her, he kissed her gently on the temple and asked her to sleep. She did as he asked.

She was changed, new, different, like a butterfly freshly emerged from it's cocoon; wings still unfolding, drying and flexing in the sun and freedom. He lay in the night knowing how easy it would have been to take what he wanted. It was the fight he waged war against daily on the inside. Once he'd learned how to take it was easy. But to take from her would be wrong. No matter how good she tasted and felt under his hands, it would be wrong and he wasn't that kind of man. Maybe he once was, but not anymore. His anger was gone and it seemed hers had fled too. He fell asleep wondering what this change would bring for them, but determined they would see it through – together.

* * *

The nightmare came, but as she wrestled, she felt Crews hold her and press his lips to her temple. She didn't really wake, but she knew he was there. She knew she was safe because he was there.

She awoke in the morning before him and flickers of her subconscious thoughts stayed in the corners of her mind like cobwebs. She knew somehow that she didn't really want to be without him now – at work, at home, at play, at rest – she felt most complete with Charlie Crews holding her in his gaze, in his arms, in his heart.

Her mind replayed their eventful night; one in which Crews pleasured her repeatedly without ever taking advantage of her state of arousal. More than once she'd urged him to join her, but he simply redoubled his efforts to make her moan in supplication and need. No man had lavished that sort of attention on her ever. Most did the perfunctory ten minutes of foreplay and then helped themselves to what they came for – her. It was over in fifteen minutes max – sometimes as little as five. Last night she nearly wept at the sheer desire she felt for this man and he simply smiled and kissed her gently to sleep. She was falling hard for him and there would be no turning back from this love. It frightened her, but not being with him was more troubling.

She rolled onto her side and examined her sleeping partner. She memorized each freckle, each scar, every laugh line on his face, the blonde in his lashes, the red in his brow, the easy smile that his face naturally held. Even the violence done him had not altered whom he was underneath. That gentle soul remains locked under a layer of ice; ice she intended to melt.

"Crews," she called to him. "Wake up," she watched his eyelids flutter and open.

"Hi," he called to her from that no man's land between waking and dreaming.

"We're not done," she told him plainly. "Last night was…" she reached for the words, "amazing, but we're not done yet." That woke him up.

He tried to explain, while sitting up and moving away from her, "Dani…"

"I'm in love with you," she interrupted and spoke her mind plainly. "Not infatuated, not lusting after, not horny after two months in prison; I'm in love – with you."

"I don't want to be a mistake," he told her his fears.

"Then do this like you mean it," she pushed him down and straddled him.

"Oh, I mean it," he reached for her.

The gentleness was still there, but so was his ferocity in equal measure. He was careful not to hurt her, but her passion equaled his and quickly they were in over both their heads. Their sweat slicked bodies slid in rhythm and time. Luckily, the heart doesn't need to see; it feels the right path. It uses tongues, hands, eyes, wild heartbeats and breathless kisses to find its way.


	10. Chapter 10

**Locked Away – Chapter Ten**

She was standing barefoot in his kitchen, dressed in one of his expensive shirts, when the knock at the door came.

He was wearing blue flannel pajama bottoms and flipping pancakes. She laughed as the front door opened.

They both assumed it was Ted; it wasn't.

Tidwell's head emerged around the archway leading from the massive foyer into Crews' kitchen. Before they left the station, he was conflicted; now – seeing her in that state of dress he knew what had happened. He felt a lot less conflicted about what was about to happen. Rival didn't begin to describe what Crews was in this scenario. He didn't have to reach far to envision what had happened in the intervening hours. It was obvious his girlfriend was no longer his – maybe she never had been. In those moments, he was glad for the two uniforms that flanked him.

"Detective Charlie Crews," Tidwell spoke with officiousness and a bit of a sneer. "You need to come with us," he gestured to the officers, one of which removed his cuffs and motioned for Crews to turn around.

"You know the position," the uniform smiled darkly.

Crews stood stock still, frying pan in hand, in shock.

Reese reacted first. "What the fuck do you think you are doing?" she shouted angrily. "Get away from him," she tried to step in between Crews and the uniformed cop.

"Dani….Detective…" Tidwell said more softly as he tried to touch her, move her away, "don't make this any harder."

Her eyes shot daggers, "get your fucking hands off me."

"Detective Charles Crews," one of the uniforms recited the words they all knew. "You are under arrest for bribery of a public official. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you can't afford an attorney… Well, we don't need that part. Do we rich boy?" the cop sniggered.

There was a moment when Dani's eyes went wild and Crews knew that he had to surrender to prevent this from being worse, not for them; but for her, for Dani.

"Reese," he called to her softly. Her eyes returned to him. "It's okay. I'm okay."

"No," she whimpered slightly in her reply. "No," her second repetition had an edge to it. She was regaining control. He held her eyes and when she nodded he put the pan down and surrendered. He put both hands behind his back.

"Wait," she instructed with such command in her voice that everyone froze. She walked to stand under Crews' chin. One of the uniforms bristled, but Tidwell waved him off. "Promise me you'll come back," she demanded of him.

He smiled at their inside joke. It was the demand he'd made of her. She dragged him down to her and kissed him soundly. It made Tidwell insanely jealous. The way she kissed him was unlike any degree of passion he'd ever evoked from her.

"I'll always come back to you, Dani," he promised against her ear as they broke. She released him and stepped away.

"Call Mannon," he requested in an audible tone as they led him to the front door and the waiting patrol car.

"We'll meet you at the station," she promised.

Tidwell slunk away, trailing behind the uniforms.

"Captain," the edge in her voice held him in the room. He didn't turn, but he paused.

"You sick fuck," she hissed, "if I find out you did this…I will fucking end you."

Tidwell walked out without looking back, but there was no doubt in his mind, she meant every word of her threat. He didn't like what was happening, but there was a guard at County who broke under direct questioning and admitted to taking money from Crews. IAD had come to him to ask if paying off a guard was part of the undercover operation; he begrudgingly said it wasn't. He knew what they'd do with the information. He knew that his answer gave IAD just what they wanted; a hard charge with teeth on their favorite target – Charlie Crews.


	11. Chapter 11

**Locked Away – Chapter Eleven**

Dani Reese watched Charlie Crews' front door swing shut. She heard the slam and jumped like she was standing next to a gun that had been fired. The finality of the sound resonated through her and she had two choices: weep or reach for something else.

In the past anger was her constant companion; it kept her warm but it was no longer enough. She became unimaginably cold; she felt it happening. She could see more clearly through the layers of thick ice, than the blistering heat waves that often clouded her vision. She wondered if this was how Crews saw the world all the time. She was determined to ask him, once she got him out of there.

She spun and ran upstairs. She dropped his expensive shirt on the floor and showered quickly, dressed and took his car. She phoned Mannon as she drove to the station. There was a terseness to her tone that let the high priced lawyer know she was not to be trifled with.

"Yes, of course," he vowed. "I'm on my way there now."

* * *

When she arrived at the station, Tidwell intercepted her at the elevator. Apparently, he'd been expecting her. "Dani…Detective," he corrected. He reached for her and she recoiled, so he swept his hand and offered, "we can talk in my office." She turned on her heel and went there.

"Before you say anything, let me explain…" it was as far as he got before the look on her face stole the rest of his statement. Her eyes were cold and hard.

"I'm not interested in your explanation. I just want to know one thing," she countered. "Was this undercover thing ever about LA County? Or was it just to get at Crews?"

"What?" Tidwell blustered angrily. "Look - every single thing is not about Charlie Fucking Crews," he was clearly offended and his tone showed it.

"No?" she expressed her disdain and disgust with a single word and cutting look.

For a long moment they simply stared at each other, wondering in that moment how they'd ever been lovers. Both had different questions, but the same conclusion – that "it" was over. Dani spoke first breaking their collective silence and laying down the gauntlet.

"That's complete bullshit. You sent me on a special assignment with the FBI and all they ever asked me about was Crews? Then this thing at County, that I'm just perfect for," her hands made quotes in the air as she recited his words. "Then they come after Crews? And you're telling me you didn't know about this? Bullshit!"

Tidwell leveled his tone and tried to keep it professional. "They asked if Crews paying this guard…uh, MacIntyre…if that was part of the undercover op. I told them the truth. I didn't authorize any payment. No operational funds were issued or employed. They'd check the file, Dani. It's easy to verify. Crews did this on his own…" he stammered. "How was I supposed to know what he'd do? Did you know what he'd do?"

"Yes," she hissed in a sharp whisper. Her anger was creeping back in. She breathed deeply to restore her balance and perspective. "He was getting me out of shit that you keep getting me into, stuff you keep volunteering me for. Is that because you guys think he'll do anything to protect me?"

"He will won't he?" Tidwell shot back and there was bitterness in his tone.

"Yes," she answered plainly. She noticed he didn't ask "what guys?" That was an answer of it's own. _A non-answer is still an answer_ her brain told her and when it spoke the thought - it was in Crews' voice.

"He'd even go back to prison," Tidwell twisted the knife. It hurt to lose her and he wanted her feel his pain. "That's what could happen Dani," he embellished, but his words struck home. He could see the fear blossom in her eyes.

"That's not going to happen," she asserted with a confidence that made him sure she'd break Crews out of prison and flee with him to Mexico if it came to that. She bit the side of her mouth and thought about the fact he didn't answer all of her question and what that meant. Then she gambled hard – rolling the hard six and laying all her cards on the table. "Help me. If you ever cared about me, then help me – help him."

"I don't know how I can," Tidwell softened and backpedaled. "I can't change the facts. I didn't authorize any pay off. Crews is on his own."

"No," she looked down. When she looked up again she was smiling, "We are none of us alone. He's not alone; he's got me."

She watched Mannon enter the squad bay and nodded to him through the glass of Tidwell's office. "That's our lawyer."

"Our lawyer? He's a co-worker Dani. You're not married to him," Tidwell remarked snidely.

"He's my partner," she stated succinctly their relationship. It was a simple word, but it said so much. "He's my partner," she repeated softly almost to herself. It rang true. Nothing had changed and everything had changed.

* * *

Crews sat still and silent, cuffed to the table in Interrogation Room #2. He'd invoked his right to counsel and then proceeded to close his eyes and meditate. The IAD Detective wanted to throttle him and had made no secret of it. The suits, once again stymied, left to consult their "higher ups" and left Crews to appreciate the complete silence of a soundproofed room. It was a sound he enjoyed – silence.

A door opened and closed; footsteps fell – the sound of leather soles on linoleum until a single person – a man from the sound of it stopped in front of the table. Crews did not open his eyes, flinch or adjust his breathing. He remained absolutely still and resolute.

"I told you not to involve my daughter in this, Crews," Jack Reese's hard tone shocked him out his practice.

His eyes blinked open and he felt his heart rate increase. "Hello, Jack," Crews spoke with the practiced false brightness he'd cultivated.

"Knock off the crap, Crews," the older man spoke. "I still got friends in this Department. People I go way back with," he let the insinuation hang. He could harm Crews, probably even kill him, walk out the front door and vanish - again.

"Yes," Charlie's tone sharpened. "I'm well aware of the things you and your friends are capable of. I had twelve years to think about them."

"What you did….it was stupid Crews," Reese sounded disappointed. He heaved a heavy sigh, "but…you did it to help Dani." There was grudging admiration, even respect in his tone and that surprised Crews.

"They can't send me up for this," Crews spoke his truth. He knew that even if they proved he bribed a public official, the most the DA would do is censure him. He wasn't going back to prison for a bribery beef and Crews knew it.

"If they do," Reese threatened, "who looks after my daughter?"

"She's got a boyfriend," Charlie said neutrally.

"That fucking oaf can't tie his own shoes," Reese intimated his level of knowledge. "I didn't want her anywhere near you," he shook his head, "but only someone like you his tough enough, hard enough, to keep my daughter safe."

"Why is she in danger Jack?"

This was Crews' only true question; the important one, the one he really needed to know the answer to. _Was Dani's level of exposure his fault alone?_ Or did Jack Reese bear some responsibility for his daughter being played with like a chess pawn.

"When I left," Reese bared his soul, "I took some things with me that could hurt a lot of very powerful people. Insurance. Now they want me to know that they can still hurt the people I love."

"Dani?"

"Yes, you fucking moron. Dani – my daughter," Reese snapped in a tone reminiscent of his younger darker offspring. She got some of that tone and attitude directly from her father, Crews realized. "Your lawyer is in the lobby. Don't say anything to anyone, not even Dani. I wasn't here. But make damned sure there are no more undercover assignments for her."

Charlie motioned up with his chin, "cameras see everything."

"Cameras…smart ass – see what they are programmed to see," Jack tipped his hand.

"So you got a friend in tech," Charlie surmised.

"I got a lot of friends Crews," Jack smiled in superiority.

"Good, I might need some tech to go away later," Crews bargained.

"You keep her close, Crews. Keep her safe."

"I will," Crews vowed. Jack Reese didn't need to know just how close Charlie was to his daughter and it was probably better that he didn't. But a look passed between the men that said everything they'd left unsaid. Reese grunted something in reply, but it was only a grumble. He opened the door and exited down the back stair. Crews exhaled and rolled his shoulders. The web of players and pawns for more tangled than he could even imagine.

* * *

Minutes later, the door opened again. This time Mannon entered, flanked by Dani Reese. "We're going home," she promised him.

He nodded and smiled.

"Mannon's gonna take care of the bail," she risked a look around the room and then leaned close so that only he could hear. "I'll be back in a couple hours. I gotta find MacIntyre," she whispered.

"No," he pronounced sharply and pulled away to make eye contact. "I don't want you to…"

She ignored his objection entirely, "I'll be back in a hour," she smiled, kissed him quickly and left.

He rattled his cuffs against the table he was secured to in frustration. He couldn't protect her like this. He needed to be with her. If she kept going off without him, bad things could happen. "Mannon," he spoke sharply, "I need out of here – NOW!"

The lawyer nodded, but the wheels of justice turn slowly. It would be hours before he was released. Where Dani was and what she was doing made him worry in a way he thought he'd given up. In the back of his mind, he knew that him going to see the primary witness against his would look bad; it would be bad. She had to go alone, but it didn't stop him from worrying.


	12. Chapter 12

**Locked Away – Chapter Twelve**

She knocked on the door of a small but clean house in an exceptionally bad part of town. The house was painted tan with a tasteful brick colored window trim. It couldn't have been more than 900 square feet from the look of it, but MacIntyre had fenced off his small yard with chain-linked fence three feet high in the front and six feet in the back. There were wrought iron bars on the windows, probably out of necessity judging from the neighborhood. The one car garage was shut and the house appeared quiet.

Gang bangers in low riding cars inched up the street blasting rap music. She was out of place and she knew it. She knocked again.

She kept her hand on the pistol on her hip as she heard scuffling sounds inside and stepped to the side of the door, just in case the answer was a 12-gauge shotgun blast through the door. Slowly, the doorknob turned and the door opened a crack. A small brown face appeared about three feet off the ground and a row of small white teeth smiled at her.

"You're pretty," the little boy said softly.

"Are you Mr. MacIntyre?" she asked the boy knowing full well the answer.

"Uh-uh," he said. "Dad's gone to the store. He'll be back soon."

The gang bangers returned headed the other direction. Four pairs of beady eyes stared at her suspicious as they crawled up the street.

"Could I wait inside for him?" Dani pressed showing her badge to the boy.

"You're a policeman?" he stared at her badge with obvious interest.

"Uh-huh," she nodded as the car rounded the corner. The third time they came back if she was still on the street there was gonna be trouble.

"I'm not supposed to let strangers inside," the boy offered, but then reconsidered, "but if you're police I guess it's okay." He swung the door wide and Dani breathed a big sigh of relief. Once inside with the door shut, the shy little boy became very animated. "My dad's a policeman too. See…" he pointed at photo of a much younger Mac in LAPD blue. "He works at the prison now – where the worst bad guys are. That's cause he the best policeman there is," the boy bragged proudly.

"What's your name?"

"Cornelius," he smiled. "I'm eight."

"I'm Dani," she offered her hand to the boy, "I'm…a lot older than you."

"Want some juice?" Cornelius offered graciously.

"Sure," Dani played along and followed him to the kitchen where his homework was dutifully laid out on the table. _That's why it took two knocks to get him to the door._ She pulled out the chair opposite him and sat down. A small green juice box appeared in a brown hand in front of her. "Uh, thanks," she said awkwardly.

The boy climbed back into his chair and turned the page in his textbook. "I have to do my homework so we can go to the park later, before it gets dark," he added. It was clear that Cornelius was aware this was not a good neighborhood. It was also clear he was a polite, respectful and well mannered kid. Cornelius was exactly the kind of child she'd been at eight.

"Where's your mom?" Dani asked innocently.

The boy looked up and then a pained expression crossed his face. He looked down in his lap and said the words that made her regret the question, "she's gone to heaven."

There was an awkward silence which the tiny "I'm sorry" Dani offered didn't begin to fill. The moment stretched while she scrambled to think of something to change the topic of conversation. She decided on, "Do you want to be a policeman like your Daddy when you grow up?"

Cornelius wiped his eyes with his sleeve and said softly, "yes."

"My daddy was a policeman," she offered. Her soft smile made the boy smile back.

"Is he dead?" Cornelius asked a fair return question. She did say her father "was" a policeman.

"I don't know," she answered honestly simultaneously perplexing both herself and the boy. _How could she not know if her father was alive or dead?_ Yet Jack Reese's vanishing left her and her mother in a puzzled stated. For her mother it had turned to self pity, then anger, then depression; for Dani it had simply been a relief. She was saved from further introspection by the sound of the garage door being lifted.

"Dad's home," Cornelius smiled broadly, while announcing the obvious.

She didn't know if she should stand or stay seated, but felt better standing next to the sink opposite the door where Mac would enter the house. She waited and he came in carrying bundles of groceries in both hands. Heavily laden plastic bags hung from his strong hands and arms, but an expression of first surprise, then disgust crossed his face.

"Cornelius," he said sharply, "go to your room."

The boy started to protest, but when Mac said, "police business," the boy sighed and trod slowly down the hall to the back of the house.

"Why are you in my house Detective?" he questioned in a hoarse whisper.

"You know why," she answered in a mirroring terse whisper.

"I told them the truth," he defended. "That red haired cop," he alluded to Crews, "he paid for time alone with you."

"I know," she told him patiently. "What I want to know is this…Other people take money, other people offer money to guards right? Did IAD ask you about anyone else who paid you? Anyone else inside who took money?"

This never seemed to have occurred to Mac. His head cocked to the side and then he answered succinctly. "No. They only wanted to know about your partner. They showed me his mug shot. It was from years ago. He was younger, but it was still him. I was so glad to get out of there I never thought about anything else…but getting out of there and back to my boy."

"What did they offer you?"

"Clean slate. I keep my job. No record, no time, no nothing. I just had to give them a statement and back it up in court when the time comes," he told her. "I'm all he's got," he offered as a way of explanation.

Dani didn't belabor the point. It wouldn't change what had happened. Instead she asked a better question. "What happened to his mother?"

"Cancer," he said sadly. "About eight months ago," he sighed, "I was good police. But that took everything I made. I mortgaged the house, then second mortgaged it and we were about to go under so I did what everyone else does – I took money." He seemed truly ashamed. "She died anyway – I still lost everything."

"Not everything," Dani pointed out. "That little boy? He idolizes you."

"Yeah, his father – the prison guard who was on the take," Mac joked darkly. "Hell of a role model."

For a moment Dani's whole life flashed before her eyes. Her father, the man she idolized as a child, happy times, family dinners, little league and laughter, her father smiling. Then the Bank of LA robbery and everything changed. The father who left them last year was not the man she grew up with. _Was that when it happened? Did he know? Did he take part?_

"Don't give up," she said spontaneously, "he's all you've got? Well, you're all he's got. But you've got a fresh start. Keep it clean, but let this go. If you keep hanging onto what you've done, you'll live there forever. You aren't your past."

"No one is just one thing, huh?" he repeated her words from the prison back to her.

She didn't have to reply. They both knew. There was something profound in those simple words. A good man can do bad things; bad men can sometimes do good things. The question in her mind now was…_was her father the good man who did a bad thing or was he a bad man who occasionally stumbled across something good? _ What was Crews trying to tell her when he said that to her? Had he done bad things? Things he was ashamed of? Or was he talking about her father?

She needed to know and she need answers. But she was finding that answers were as elusive as Crews' often referenced "sound of one hand clapping."


	13. Chapter 13

**Locked Away – Chapter Thirteen**

He was sitting in a holding cell in Central Booking, waiting for Mannon to finish the requisite forms, posting bail so he could go home, when the door opened and he smelled exotic perfume. His mind immediately summoned an image of Dani Reese, although he rarely knew her to wear perfume. She was the first woman he thought of; she was invariably the first woman he always thought of.

This time, however, it was not her. It was instead Constance Griffiths.

"Charlie," she chided laughing. "What have you gotten yourself into now?"

He straightened immediately, but did not answer or rise from his seat. _Why was she here? How did she know to be here?_

She answered his unspoken questions straight away, "I was having dinner with the ADA when who do you suppose came up in conversation? Hmmm…" she wandered her hand across his shoulder to his chin and asked suggestively, "Charlie? Do you need my help now?"

"I've got a lawyer," he said neutrally.

"Yes," she whispered and then leaned close, "but what he doesn't know and what you don't know… is they have another witness – some doctor." She smiled at her information coup and retreated from his personal space to observe his reaction.

He made no response verbal or otherwise. His instincts told him Connie was still stinging from earlier in the month and now she was here without notice. _Why?_ He wondered. _Why had she listened to Kyle Hollis admit he was Jack Reese's informant and then lied about it? _

Now after he was arrested; both Jack Reese and Connie made unannounced visits to him inside a secured area. His radar was on high alert. Something was wrong; he could sense it even if he didn't know what it was or which direction it was coming from.

"Do you need my help… Detective?" Connie purred.

As if on cue, the door opened again and a dour, dark haired presence entered the room. "He doesn't need your help – now or ever," replied the voice he knew intimately. Dani Reese wasn't just pissed; she was hell on fire jealous and fearsome in her wrath.

He couldn't help the smug smile that formed on his face.

Connie's face registered first shock, then embarrassment, then anger. She turned on her very expensive, very high heels and left. Her steps rung like tiny shots as they echoed up the polished linoleum heels.

"Crews," Dani barked and he had to resist the impulse to grin because that would just further annoy her. "Let's go," she demanded and he followed wheresoever she led.

Mannon stood mutely outside, was smart enough not to speak and vanished once his job was done. Charlie was really beginning to warm to the idea of keeping him as a full time lawyer, since it appeared between he and Reese, they'd need one.

* * *

In the parking garage, Reese stormed away faster than even his long legs could comfortably move and he did not race to keep up with her. Dani, when she was like this, needed space to blow herself out like a massive storm. But when she realized he wasn't chasing after her, she wheeled to confront him.

"What the hell was THAT woman doing here?" she growled.

"I don't know," he held his ground firmly in the face of her onslaught.

"I don't like her," she advised him of what he already knew.

"She wasn't my only unannounced visitor this evening," he was honest even though Jack had instructed him not to share their conversation – he had no secrets from Dani. "Your father came to see me," he shared and her face changed from anger to rage.

Her eyes narrowed and darkened. Her brow furrowed hard and her head canted both in curiosity and question. He said nothing further, partly because he knew nothing further and partly because watching Dani Reese completely occupied his attention. Then her expression quickly became unreadable and she turned walking away even faster. This time however he did race to catch her.

"Hey," he grabbed her by an elbow and spun her, "wanna tell me what's going on?"

"How the fuck should I know?" she leveled at him. It was one part accusation and one part fear.

"Honey?" he asked still holding her arm.

She grimaced at his choice of terms.

He thought better of it and re-approached with better word choice. "Dani, what happened when you went to see MacIntyre?"

She looked at her feet and didn't answer. She wasn't ready to talk about the truths she'd learned and the questions she still had. She was still processing the fact that as Crews was quick to point out, "everything is connected."

His hand left her arm to stroke her cheek and brush her hair back from her face. His tenderness seemed to undo the earlier anger that had wound her into a tight ball of fury. Several conflicting emotions crossed her face, before she abruptly pushed him against the nearest wall. He smiled because he knew what came next.

She was asserting her claim over him and he liked the idea of being claimed by Dani Reese. She pressed him backwards until his back made contact with the cool concrete.

"Don't you smile at me," she warned in a low tone. She then proceeded to kiss the smirk off his face. "I hate that woman," she repeated breathlessly.

"I – love – you," he punctuated his words with wet open-mouthed kisses. They were getting quite amorous for the parking structure. He wondered if he'd be charged with indecent exposure and lewd conduct if this continued, adding to his long list of sins.

"And did you ever love her?" she questioned holding him back and summoning his eyes to hers. Her question was sincere, her expression open and honest. This was one of the times when she was entirely unguarded and vulnerable and in those moments he loved her most. That she trusted him to do that, to be that – with him.

"No," he answered truly. "I was grateful, indebted, but never in love with her. I've only loved one other woman; my ex and you know what she did to me."

"She broke your heart," Dani summed it up succinctly.

"Yep," he was embarrassed. Jennifer was still a rough, sore, raw mark on his battered heart and she hurt every time he thought about her despite his better efforts to move past it.

"I won't do that to you Crews," she vowed. "I won't leave you."

"I know, honey," he said cautiously as he gathered her to his chest. "I know."

"Stop calling me honey," she grumbled against his ribcage.

"You don't like it?" he wondered about her objection.

"I like it," she admitted grudgingly. "But I don't like that I like it," she explained.

He chuckled, "and people say I'm crazy." She laughed with him and held him close.


	14. Chapter 14

**Locked Away – Chapter Fourteen**

They lay in bed. Neither was asleep, nor did they speak.

Each was consumed with their own thoughts.

Dani wondered why her father visited Crews and what he'd said. They hadn't discussed it yet and she knew they would, but for the mean time she pondered what it meant that she'd been kidnapped and held by Nevikov and then imprisoned (or so her cover was) and he hadn't shown his face, but Crews got arrested and presto, Jack Reese appeared. _What the hell did that mean?_

And that sultry temptress of a lawyer in her three inches and designer clothes, she who smelled like perfumes that cost more than Dani made in a week. _What was her connection?_ It was clear she had feelings for Crews; ones he didn't return. _Why keep trying? Was there a connection between Connie and her father? If so, what and why?_

Her hand traced the torso of her lover. That was what Crews was to her now – minimum. Their sexual compatibility, once she stopped fighting it, was unmistakable. They easily fell into a rhythm and he seemed to know all the right ways to coax her into a place she didn't know well – trust. He was an honest partner and a skilled and attentive lover, but in truth he was far more than that now. She just wasn't willing to give it a name – not yet.

Her hands played over his body, tracing the edges of his ribs and running her fingertips over the lines and pucker marks of his scars. Bullet holes, broken bones, stab wounds, slices and rough patches of tattooed skin marred his pale body. It seemed he could survive anything, but the deepest of cuts – betrayal. And yet…he'd been betrayed by everyone he'd ever known; his wife, his partner, his work mates, his father – all of them. She looked up and his eyes were closed but he was not sleeping. She kissed his chest and watched a smile spread across his face.

He wondered what she learned by visiting MacIntyre. She hadn't said she'd found him or if he talked, but he knew without a doubt that there wasn't anyone she couldn't find and make talk if she set her mind to it. _Why then had she never turned her prodigious sleuthing to locating her father? Maybe she didn't want to find him. Maybe her life was better without him,_ he considered.

_Was Jack using him? To what end? How were Jack Reese and Constance connected – it was crystal clear to him now that they were. Was Tidwell and pawn or a player? Who was behind all this? Where were they going next?_ He didn't know but he knew that he wouldn't be alone. She'd be there – Dani.

He felt her hands on him; her fingers on his body and her fingerprints on his heart. It was his age-old torment. He turned it over in his brain, puzzling. _How could he let go of something so essential to his life and yet, how could he justify exposing her to more danger?_ It was selfish of him not to end it – not that he could. But they both knew that she was being used to manipulate him.

It had been discovered that she was the one way to hurt him. Probably not what they'd envisioned when they put the young detective with a drug habit in charge of him. They'd tried to leverage her position, deep in the doghouse, to get Dani to inform on him; it never worked. They'd tried to intimidate him in other ways. Internal Affairs investigations, locking Ted back up, searching his house, tossing his car. The list went on and on: interrogations that lasted hours, but the thing that made him come unglued was exposing her to danger. Him being unable to protect her was the one thing he couldn't endure. He'd acted stupidly. He wondered exactly when they'd known.

Certainly, the thing with Roman had been a lucky first guess. But this? This was by design. They set this up. Tidwell had been in on it, but then in retrospect he'd shown his hand to Tidwell that first day. Sloppy of him to show that type of weakness and concern in front of the Captain, he chided himself internally. Having Dani inside unnerved him. He'd done what they said and he'd have done more, done worse, to get her out of there. He was absolutely, without a doubt, committed to the lithe shadow of a woman in his arms.

Her dark hair lay across his chest as he stroked her back and ran his fingers through her hair. He tolerated her exploration of his body. With others he'd felt self-conscious, he kept a shirt on during sex or dressed shortly afterwards, but with Dani he lay naked and did not feel judged. She had her own scars in places you could see and others you could not.

After awhile it was no longer exploring; her hand became like hands on a rosary as she repeated a wordless prayer. He felt her motions become repetitive and he knew she was deep in thought, but her hands on him kept her tied to the now, to him, to here. She, in turn, tied him to this world, this place, these people, but he longed to take her and flee – to run far from this and live without the demons of their collective pasts haunting them. But that just didn't happen – did it?

"Crews?" she questioned tiredly.

"Hmmm," he responded with an equal degree of lethargy.

"Are you gonna…" she began but stumbled over the hardness of her question. She didn't really want to go there yet, but she knew she had to.

"Tell you about your father?" he finished knowing instinctively where her mind would go first. She nodded. "Yes, honey, but let's sleep first," he suggested.

He felt her exhale and knew the relief she felt was twofold. First he'd known immediately what she wanted to know and didn't even try to fight him on it. Secondly, he'd known that it would ruin their hard won moment of peace and he wanted to preserve it as much as she did. She snuggled closer to him and his arms secured her to chest.

"Love you," he mumbled into her hair.

"Uh-huh," she replied in agreement and then yawned deeply, "me too." It was close as she got to a profession of love and he'd take it.

* * *

He woke first in the morning with a burning question. It was an idea tinged with insanity, but it made him feel giddy to even consider it. He wriggled and squirmed until he jostled her into a waking state.

"Crews," she complained groggily, "stop."

"Run away with me," he blurted out his desire. "Let's just leave and forget all this."

"What?" she twisted to examine him.

He smiled brightly and she frowned. "No," she said firmly, "I don't run away from anything."

"What about running towards something?" he couched the question separately.

She sat up and leaned back against the headboard, "you're serious aren't you?"

"Yeah," he sat back with her winding his hand through hers, "I think I am."

"Don't you want to know why? Why you? Why me? Why all this…" she couldn't find the words.

"Yes, but I want you more," he was blatantly honest.

"I want to know why," she said strongly. "Nobody fucks with people I…" she resisted for a moment and then let the word lose, "love and gets away with it."

He considered this. It took a lot for her to say those words. They cost and she meant them. He nodded and squeezed her hand, "okay."

"Besides," she grinned wryly, "didn't they tell you not to leave town when they arrested you?"

"Sure," he smiled in return, "but I don't usually do what I'm told."

"Yeah," she laughed. "That's one reason you're so much fucking trouble."

He grabbed her and pulled her under him, "too much trouble?" He asked his question breathlessly while poised to kiss her.

"There no such thing as too much trouble for me," she bragged.

She was back; her confidence, her wit, the intangibles that made her irresistible to him and a thousand other men. But she chose him – she chose him. He was still thinking about that when her hand on his face brought him back to reality.

"You gonna kiss me or keep me in suspense?" And kiss her he did.


	15. Chapter 15

**Locked Away – Chapter Fifteen**

"No, no, no, no," she shouted. It was clear that Dani Reese was very displeased with her partner.

"But it's the only…" he argued. His voice wasn't loud, but it was stern and it was clear they were on different sides of an issue.

Ted froze with his hand on the front door. The door was open, but he could probably back out and shut it quietly leaving them to argue in peace. It wasn't the first time he'd witnessed the diminutive brunette chastise Charlie. It always amazed him that Charlie let her boss him around. The Charlie Crews he knew in prison did not ever get bossed around, but then Ted considered that no one in Pelican Bay had legs like hers. Then he realized that if he could see her legs then they could see him.

"Ted will agree with me…" Charlie argued drawing him into their fight.

"I don't give a rat's ass what Ted thinks," she hissed at him in a tight whisper, but it was Charlie's house and every sound echoed seemingly forever in the empty chambers of forgotten rooms and white marble floors.

If either one of them thought it was strange for Ted to walk in on them fighting, her wearing nothing but one of Charlie's shirts and him wearing nothing but boxers, no one intimated it. It was as if clothing didn't matter they worth so engrossed in their diametrically opposed viewpoints.

"I'll just go," Ted offered, but Crews subtly shook his head.

His buddy needed backup and Ted wasn't going to just leave him hanging. Dani Reese, while small, was exceedingly fierce in her own right; add to that the fact that Crews loved her dearly and he was outmatched. Ted gulped hard and waded in.

"So what's the problem?" he asked pulling at his suddenly tight collar.

Dani threw her hands up in mock theatrics and Charlie rolled his eyes in protest, before addressing Ted's comment. "You know that Kyle Hollis was Jack Reese's informant. And you know that Hollis admitted that over a cell phone to me and to Connie….ah, Constance Griffiths," he corrected after a decidedly dark look from Dani.

Ted nodded in agreement. Reese said nothing, but her stare was dark and hard.

"You also know that Connie…." This time he used the nickname of his lawyer intentionally and Dani's eyes narrowed, "denied hearing that."

"That's…that's true, Detective," Ted confirmed meekly.

"The night I was arrested, two people came to see me unannounced – Constance Griffiths and Jack Reese. This is not a coincidence. There is a connection; I'm just not seeing it," Charlie pled his case.

"Seems reasonable to…" Ted began but stopped after a dark stare from Reese.

"Exactly," Charlie threw up his hands. "Now, this one doesn't want me talk to Constance to see if I can find out what that connection is."

"I don't like her. Why can't I talk to her?" Dani argued back.

"Cause she'll tell me things…" Charlie almost whined.

"Because she has a thing for you," Dani shouted back.

"Yes, but I don't have a thing for her," Charlie shot back. They'd both made their points and after another moment of intense staring, they both shifted their gaze expectantly to Ted.

"Wait…" he wondered. "When were you arrested?" Ted stammered. He was still catching up. He'd spent the day with Ann and his grandson up in Napa Valley arriving back only late this morning.

Both of them, in unison, groaned. Ted regrouped.

"Okay, so it's clear someone should explore the connection between your father," he motioned at Dani, "and your lawyer," he motioned at Charlie.

"Ex lawyer," they pronounced in unison. At least they agreed on that part.

"Hmmm," Ted stroked his chin thoughtfully. Both watched him intently. "You do realize that it's crazy for me to decide?"

They looked at each other chagrinned.

"He's got a point," Charlie offered. "Do you trust me?"

"Of course," she said with a modicum of sarcasm. "I don't trust her."

"I don't trust her either," he offered. "How about I take Ted along?"

Dani looked hard at Ted. He'd never felt so judged in his life. "Done," she pronounced. Charlie winked at Ted and Ted suddenly felt very uncomfortable.

"Will this be dangerous?" Ted inquired. Charlie was steering him by the elbow toward the open door. "Cause I don't like dangerous, I don't…I don't do dangerous Charlie."

"Relax, Ted," Charlie smiled a grin that Ted knew from experience meant trouble. "She's a lawyer. What could happen?"

* * *

Ted was listening to a two-way conversation that was occurring as if he weren't in the room, quite possibly as if he weren't on the planet. Charlie talked to Constance, she talked to him and both completely ignored Ted.

But Ted knew why he was there. Dani didn't think Charlie was suspicious enough of his former lawyer. She felt he had a great big blind spot when it came to Constance and Ted's job was to look out for him. That Ted could do easily without talking.

He watched the two of them. Constance sat close and frequently touched Charlie, which Ted knew was a indication of her level of sexual interest in him. She definitely had a _thing _(to use Detective Reese's term) for his tall red headed friend and she made no secret of it. Charlie's heart, however, belonged to another and he was a one-woman man. Ted mused that back in his days of wheeling and dealing, he'd have had no issue with being all things to both women, but that wasn't how Charlie Crews worked. _Pity,_ he thought.

But Charlie wanted something from Constance. He was giving her just enough encouragement and smiles to win her affection, to keep her wanting him. The conversation got low and heated and Ted began to have a hard time hearing what was being said. Constance began to cry and Charlie had to lean close to hear her confession. She continued for several minutes looking to him for support and he held her hand and kissed her forehead, before sitting back.

The look on Charlie's face was one Ted would never forget. It took a lot of completely shock Charlie Crews, but he wore an expression of utter disbelief.

"So you basically… work for him?" Charlie stammered softly.

She nodded mutely sniffling.

"And you have since the beginning?" he confirmed.

Again Connie nodded.

"Uh," he pushed back, "I need some time." She reached for him, but he stood up and away from her. "Connie, this is nothing like what I thought, nothing like what you led me to believe," he was on his heels and spinning. He was looking for an escape.

"Uh," Ted interrupted. Perhaps the only important thing he'd done all day, "we've got that thing," he pointed at his watch. Charlie looked stunned. "And we're gonna be late," Ted hinted.

"Right," Charlie said catching the lifeline Ted threw. He turned stepped close and hugged Connie who kept repeating, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" and crying softly. He kissed her on the forehead and told her that it was "okay" when it clearly wasn't.

What she'd said, whatever she'd said had rocked Charlie to the core.


	16. Chapter 16

**Locked Away – Chapter Sixteen**

They sat in the car. No one spoke.

Ted wanted to ask, but he didn't know how.

Charlie was still processing. He kept shaking his head and talking quietly to himself like he'd done when he first got out of prison. "Not possible. It's just not possible – is it?" he'd ask himself quietly.

After about four minutes, Ted could no longer contain his curiosity so just asked, "so what'd she say?"

Charlie twisted his head and looked at Ted like he barely knew him, like he barely knew himself. He shook his head and a grimace on his face told Ted what a hard time he was having with the information she'd given him.

Ted waited because that's what friends did.

Charlie asked him to drive. Ted asked where and Charlie's response was "anywhere, nowhere." Ted knew that Charlie was really spinning because normally he'd tell anyone who'd listen that _you couldn't go nowhere because everywhere is somewhere. _

They ended up at the beach.

Charlie got out of the car and walked to the shoreline where the land ended and the water began. It was not a firm place; it kept changing just like his reality. He stood there for a long time watching the waves as they rolled into shore and retreated. Slowly, he breathed deeply and sought balance. He returned to the car, sat down, shut the door and dropped the bombshell on Ted.

"You know how we assumed that Jack Reese gave his share of the Bank of LA bank robbery to the Blessed Sisters of Mercy?" Crews looked at his friend for confirmation when he asked the question, just to make sure he hadn't imagined the conclusion they reached together.

"Yeah, well…" Ted stammered, "it was an anonymous donation, but it's a completely logically conclusion. Where else could the money have gone? It's not in his accounts. He didn't spend it anywhere. Did he?"

Charlie laughed, but it wasn't a funny laugh – it was a crazy, maniacal laugh. It was laugh from a time when Ted wasn't sure Charlie Crews wouldn't come completely unhinged in prison.

"Yes. Yes, he did, Ted." Crews bit the words off as he finished talking, "and do you want to know what he spent it on?" There was an angry edge to his tone as he asked the question and a hard look in his eyes.

Ted just shrugged and stared. He didn't have a clue.

"Me," Charlie announced. "Jack Reese held onto his money and he gave it - all of it - in cash - to Constance Griffiths to get me out of prison. He knew I didn't do it and he told her exactly how to prove it."

"Wha…did he ever say…" Ted asked incredulously. He processed faster than his friend for while he was just as surprised he was less emotionally involved.

"Why?" Charlie's expression was still pained and slightly crazed. "No," he laughed.

"What the hell does this mean?" Ted asked a little bit angry himself.

"I have no fucking clue," Charlie admitted. He was perplexed beyond words. Well, he wanted truth, answers and he'd gotten some. They didn't taste very good. The man he thought set him up was also the man who freed him. _Was it guilt that drove Reese? And if so, what was his play now?_

Thousands of questions sprung from the one he'd beheaded like a mythical snake. _If he'd freed Charlie, why did he hate Crews so much? He heard the threat on the wire. Had they found out? Was that why Reese had vanished – not because Charlie was closing in on him for the Bank of LA, but that his co-conspirators found out his part in freeing Crews?_

And just what the hell was he going to tell Dani?

He opened the door, leaned out and then leaned back in, took his cell phone and wallet out. He pulled some cash from his billfold and put the rest in the console. "I'm gonna need some time," he said. The implied task was that Ted would buy him that time. The idea of going back to the mansion without Charlie and facing that fierce little demon lover of his chilled Ted to the core.

"What am I supposed to tell…" he stammered.

"Tell her…" Charlie began. Ted could see the conflict in his eyes. "Tell her I don't want to hurt her and I don't know how not to do that now." He climbed from the car and walked back to the ocean.

Ted knew he wouldn't be back. It could be hours or days, but Crews needed to distance himself from the woman he loved to prevent her from being drawn further into this unraveling scheme. She would be beyond angry. This was worse than going back to prison – going home to tell Dani Reese that her partner wasn't coming home.

* * *

It went about as poorly as he expected.

"So you want me to believe you left him? At the beach? With no car, no ID, no phone and you what….just drove off?"

Ted nodded. There was very little you could say to a woman this angry that didn't result in things getting worse.

"Tell me exactly what he said," she demanded.

He repeated Crews words as best he could recall. "He said he didn't ever want to hurt you and he didn't know how to not do that now."

She tucked her tongue in her cheek and considered his words. It was unlikely Ted was making that up. It was sufficiently convoluted and nonsensical that it had to come from Crews. It made sense but only because she understood Crews screwy ways of saying things. He'd said it.

She tried a different tactic. "What did she tell him?"

"I really….can't say…" Ted stumbled guilty over his almost lie. It wasn't his place; it wasn't his secret to tell.

"You can't say or you don't know?" she pressed. Her eyes watched his reaction.

"I can't say," he gave up immediately. He didn't even try to lie to her.

"You…" she menaced. It was impressive that a woman barely five feet tall could be so physically intimidating, but she was.

Ted flinched and that was when she realized that her anger was misdirected. He was being a good friend to Charlie. He was delivering bad news and standing by while she "killed the messenger." He was a true friend and Charlie had few of them. She knew he'd gone back to prison rather than betray Crews and his loyalty was unquestionable.

"Give me the keys," she demanded.

He offered them and then thought better of it, "Uh…where are you going?" he asked holding them out of her reach.

"Where do you think?"

"To find Charlie?" Then he realized she wouldn't do that. She'd respect his need for space, but she'd find another way to get answers. Since he wouldn't give them to her, she'd go where Charlie went. While he was thinking, she quickly snatched the keys from him. "Wait…" he cautioned, "you can't go there."

"I'm not," she assured him.

"To see Charlie's lawyer? You're not going to see Charlie's…." he clarified.

"Ex-lawyer," she gritted her teeth, spun and fixed him with a hard look. "His EX lawyer," she stated emphatically. There was a fire deep in her eyes. "You're damned right I am," she told him. "And don't you warn her I'm coming," she warned.

He was left standing in the foyer of Charlie's large quiet house feeling somehow like he'd failed. But stopping Dani Reese right now would be like trying to stop the planet from spinning. She was on a collision course with Constance Griffiths and after what Connie had done to Charlie, he didn't feel sorry for her.

Connie lied to Charlie from the start. One of the few people he'd invested trust in, after going to prison had lied to him. Everything about their relationship was based on a lie. Now it made sense to him that Constance denied hearing Hollis admit to being Jack Reese's informant. Jack Reese was her real client, her first client and her allegiance – if there was such a thing with lawyers – lay with him.

* * *

_Author's Note: Anybody out there? I would like to thank Johnny Napalm, Mary 91 and sapphireswimming for their comments and reviews. Would love to hear from other readers. I'm a crossroads...I have written two versions of the story from here. One ends quickly, the other has more twists, turns and drama. Which would you like to see? You know you want to hit that little review button and send me a few lines. Fame or flame...I don't care, just let me hear from you. _


	17. Chapter 17

**Locked Away – Chapter Seventeen**

All the way to Constance Griffith's office, Dani fumed. As she pulled into the parking lot of the office building that held the attorney's office, she realized only one part of her agitation was jealousy. Another powerful component was worry; she was worried about Charlie Crews. Anger wouldn't help her find him. It would only serve to drive a wedge between her and the source of information about him. She sat in the car and willed herself to calm down. She breathed deeply and when her eyes opened she stared at herself in the rearview mirror.

"Where the hell are you Crews?" she asked aloud.

In her mind, she heard him say _he was there; he was always with her._ She knew that to be true. He was in her heart and therefore with her even when she couldn't see him, couldn't hear him or feel him. "I know you're somewhere, but I want you here – here," she told the mirror. "Jesus, now I'm doing it," she chastised herself, "talking gibberish to myself." She shook herself out of it, set her shoulders and walked into the building on a mission.

There was a quiet anteroom where a receptionist sat looking at a computer screen, probably surfing the internet. She was young, attractive and well dressed. She wore a headset and was answering calls and routing them to voicemail.

"I'm here to see Constance Griffiths," Dani said showing her badge.

"She's with a client. Do you have an appointment?" the receptionist smiled kindly.

"Police business," Dani again stressed the importance of the badge.

"Well, I can tell her that you're here, but as I've said…she's with a client," the young woman tried to hold Dani at bay. She pressed a button on the phone to buzz in and alert the lawyer.

"That's not necessary," Dani leaned across the desk and cut the phone off. He hand rested on her service pistol.

The woman looked surprised.

Dani powered through her, using her height advantage to menace the seated receptionist. "You don't want to make a scene do you?" she asked in a low tone.

The woman mutely shook her head. She was frightened. Dani could do that; reduce people to mutes when she chose to.

"Which office is hers?" she pressed.

The woman nodded to a door to the left.

"Now would be a good time for you to go for a coffee," Dani suggested.

The woman fled down the hall.

Dani approached the door and listened. She could hear a gruff man's voice that sounded familiar. She carefully twisted the knob and it was unlocked. She slowly opened the door. Silence was her friend and cloak; she wore it like a dark cape. The door opened inches and the voice came to her more clearly. It connected and she knew who Constance Griffith was meeting with – her father.

"Hello Dad," she swung the door open fully.

Constance was obviously stressed and the strain showed on the high-strung woman's face. Jack twisted his chair and stated flatly in an annoyed tone, "Well that's just fucking perfect."

Constance looked like she was ready to bolt or to cry, possibly both. Just to be certain that she didn't Dani instructed, "everyone just stay right where you are." Her hand remained on her pistol. Her voice was cool and level. She was so much better in control. She had to give this Zen thing of Crews' more scrutiny she realized.

"You," she used her head to motion to her father, "get up and move over there."

She hadn't drawn the pistol, but Jack knew she wasn't far from it.

"Dani," he started.

"Shut up," she demanded. If anything she was scarier when she wasn't angry. She wasn't the out of control petulant young girl he'd raise. She was completely in command of the situation and she wasn't leaving without answers. But she was figuring a lot out without asking anything at all.

"Crews came to see you. You told him something you shouldn't have, but then you'd have to tell your client, the person you worked for….what you'd divulged," she talked her theory out loud. "You'd have to warn him that Crews knew."

Connie's head dropped in shame and Dani knew her theory was sound.

"So you work for my father?" she confirmed with Constance who nodded and bit her lip. "And you've worked for him the whole time?

Jack sighed heavily, "so much for confidentiality," he groused.

"She knows," Connie began crying. "They both know."

"He helped put Crews in prison, so he knew exactly how to prove he didn't do it. He's the one who told you how to get Charlie out didn't he?" Again Connie nodded.

That's when the dots connected for Dani. Crews trusted Constance. He believed she helped him because she believed in him at a time when no one else did – perhaps not even himself. Finding out that his release was just as big a sham as his imprisonment would erode his trust in his own judgment. _How could he believe anything if he was wrong about this? _ She knew this kind of doubt; it was her near constant companion in the days following her lover's death in that drug house.

She looked at her father. She couldn't summon any feeling at all for him. Not pity, not empathy, not love. He was someone that she'd didn't even know anymore. "What happened to you?" she asked and it wasn't an accusation it was a simple question.

"I got lost," was all he said.

"You're going to get locked away," she advised, "for the rest of your life – if you're lucky." It wasn't a threat. It was a truth they both knew. Jack had known this was coming his whole life.

"I've been waiting for it every single day since 1987," he said and sadness tinged his voice. "Eventually, everyone gets caught – always." He was resigned to the fact that she knew and finally relieved it was over. "You gonna take me in?"

"No," she snapped out her introspection and the surreal nature of what she'd just discovered. "I have to find Charlie," she told him. "He's important to me."

"I know," Jack said. He stood carefully and walked to the window. He faced away from Dani and confessed the rest. "Every day since the day they locked that boy up, I knew this day would come. I knew it was wrong then and it's just as wrong now. I can keep running and hiding, but I've already lost everything important to me: you, your mother, my integrity, my career."

"You've only lost those things you let go of," she smiled. He turned and gave her a strange look. "I can't stay and explain it to you. I have to find Charlie."

"Do you love him Dani?" Jack asked gently.

"Yes," she held his eyes. "I do."

"Then maybe," Jack began. He stopped and Dani wondered what he was trying to say. "Fate has a way of unwinding all our sins and making things right in the end."

"Everything is connected," Dani willed her words from her heart. They were Charlie's words, his mantra. Jack nodded. "Good-bye, Dad," she said and turned and left.

"What happens now?" Connie asked Jack in a small voice.

"We pay for our sins," Jack said with resignation in his voice. "I need a telephone."

* * *

_Author's Note: Thanks to everyone for the feedback. It was great to hear thoughts and candid comments on where we go from here. So twisted, turning and tangled it is. Here we go..._

_Happy Thanksgiving to those Americas reading and to the rest of the world - Happy Obscure Thursday in November :)_


	18. Chapter 18

**Locked Away – Chapter Eighteen**

As she drove in silence, Dani switched on the radio to keep the noise in her mind from overwhelming her. It wasn't her father's involvement in this whole tangled mess that caused her thought to race. She nearly expected it after the man he'd become. The Jack Reese of now was not the man she grew up with, respecting, loving, wanting to be. It wasn't even the disclosure that Charlie's lawyer was in league with her father, although the questions that created were many and varied. She never trusted Connie, but Charlie had and she'd hurt him badly. The noise in her head she couldn't silence was him.

Charlie Crews, the man she was absolutely certain was going to drive her berserk in their first year together; the man she thought she'd kill their second and their third year, the one she discovered she loved. She was worried about him. _Was he about to do something dangerous? It was Crews, after all, when wasn't he doing something dangerous? If she didn't know where he was or how to find him; then how in the hell was she supposed to help him, to protect him? _

Now her mind took her to his reaction when she was about to go inside the LA County Jail. His fears were now hers. They were better together than either of them had ever been alone – that part she'd known for a long time. But he'd gone some place she couldn't find him.

The radio did not come on. Instead she heard the metallic hiss of the end of a cassette tape; his damned Zen tape. It ended on one side and flipped to the other.

She expected to hear the calm quiet clipped tones of Charlie's Zen tape reciting a lesson, but instead nothing came through the speakers. Perplexed she flipped the tape back over to hear what Charlie had been listening to. The disembodied voice floated to her through the air.

Monk: "Where can I enter Zen?"

Gensha: "Can you hear the babbling brook?"

Monk: "Yes, I can hear it."

Gensha: "Then enter there."

Then suddenly she understood why Charlie went to the beach; even if he didn't understand why it spoke to him – she did. In the past it would have annoyed her that she got that about him, now she found it both comforting and useful. That she understood things about him even if he didn't appreciate it himself. He was going to a place where he could feel the earth spin, where he could be small and insignificant and find balance. She began to worry less about him, about finding him. She knew he'd come home, he'd come back to her, but that wouldn't stop her from looking for him. She had to, just as he'd not stopped, not slept, not stopped until he'd found her when she was lost.

And while Constance Griffiths was not going to have peaceful end to her day; Dani was nowhere near done with her yet. She had more important things on her mind; actually….just one thing – Charlie Crews.

* * *

She worked the beach when she was a rookie. Her Field Training Officer quizzed her about where they were all the time. By the end of her rookie year, she knew every turn on the Pacific Coast Highway, every cove along the beach, every rock the sea broke against, every hollow spot where lovers went for privacy. She drove the PCH again, years later looking at old things she remembered and searching for the one thing that didn't belong.

The light was waning, the sun slipping into the inky black sea. The whole of the landscape was orange, like the sun, like the fruit in the grove where Crews traded his life for hers, like his hair in the sunshine. Her knuckles were wrapped tightly around the steering wheel, when a shape in the sand caught her attention. It had to be him.

He sat on the beach staring at the setting sun. He was trying to meditate and failing, so he settled for simple staring. He remembered the early days in prison when that was what he did to escape – stare. He'd stared at the grey green latex paint on the wall of his cell willing it to be something else, somewhere else. He'd imagine the lapping of the waves in the Mediterranean where he'd promised to take Jen someday. It was a lovely shade of blue green and peaceful.

A car door slammed and he wasn't there anymore. The ocean wasn't blue, it was black as night. The sun was no longer a shiny orange color; it was a deep blood red. It was the color of Tom and Paula Seybolt's blood spilled all over the cream colored carpet of their home. He'd seen it so many times by the time the trial came around that he could almost believe he was there. So much blood… an ocean of blood, a sea of false evidence and a torrent of guilt. If he let himself, he could just go under, the blackness would take him and it would finally all be over. That would be easier, it would be best, it would hurt less.

He heard footsteps as someone slogged through the sand in his direction. Probably someone wanting the privacy of a beach at sunset for far more worldly pursuits than his soul searching; they'd find some place they could be alone and leave him to his contemplation. He waited, but the footsteps kept getting closer. He turned to examine the person approaching and instantly recognized her – from her gait, from her silhouette, her body English and a thousand other things that were distinctly her. She'd found him, armed with nothing, she'd found him in the middle of nowhere on a dark beach. In truth, she'd found him in a deep ocean of doubt drifting and unsure.

"Crews," she spoke when she got close enough to talk to him without shouting. She was breathless from slogging through the deep sand. "You promised you'd come back to me."

He didn't speak. _What was there to say?_ She was right.

"I'm still waiting," she offered.

Again he said nothing.

"When you didn't come home, I went to see her. He was there, in her office, my father. I know about my father and Connie," she had her breath now but remained several feet away. She sensed how fragile he was and didn't approach, but waited for some signal from him that it was safe. "I know she lied to you from the beginning. I know you trusted her and how that must have hurt to find out she lied to you."

"Do you?" he chuckled. "Do you Reese?" he twisted to examine her.

Her eyes were nearly black in the twilight, but they shone. She shook her head.

"No," he confirmed her answer. He was angry, "how could you know?"

She said the only thing she could, the only thing that mattered, "I'm not her. I'm not well mannered, educated, rich."

He scoffed his scorn, a reply without words.

"And I'm not Jennifer – I'm not tall, beautiful and blonde. I'm not either of them," she defended.

He said nothing.

"But I'm not either of them," she explained. "Shit, I sound like you now. Fuck Charlie," she raised her voice. She was exasperated at him, at herself, at the complex surrealistic nightmare they found themselves in.

"No," he smiled in the darkness, at the darkness. She'd found him, on a deserted stretch of beach in the middle of nowhere, in the dark, she'd found him and what's more she'd looked. "You're not them."

She sighed but said nothing further.

Darkness crept in on cat's paws. There was slight tinge of blue just at the edge of the inky ocean and the black sky. Stars winked at him from the black; sparks of truth. _Be a light unto yourself_ the Buddha said. Cold descended and he felt it. But he also felt her. She'd come here to this dark place to find him. She put herself between the blackness of the ocean and him. She'd challenged her father over him; she'd lied for him; she'd traded her safety and an easy promotion to be his partner. And she'd done it all without him ever asking.

"You worth more than any of them, Reese. You're worth ten million other women," he explained. "You are my one. My only one, the only one I ever want," he vowed.

She walked to stand between him and the black sea and sky. She stood with her hands on her hips and a smile played on her lips, "then can we stop playing hide and seek?"

"I want..." he began, but fell silent at the enormity of things. She was his one and he hers. He loved her, she loved him - that should be enough.

"What do you want?" she offered him her hand to rise. "Tacos? In and Out burger? I know this place that does fish tacos…" she tried to draw him away from the deserted beach and back into the light.

"You…" he pulled her down to him. He positioned her so she was sitting in his lap. He could see the white in her smile as the moon rose lighting the sand. It was just a sliver of light, but it was getting higher in the sky. She kissed him hard and pushed him back into the sand.

"If we get arrested for public indecency…" she warned as she unbuttoned her shirt.

"Mannon will earn his retainer this month," he finished as he reached for her.


	19. Chapter 19

**Locked Away – Chapter Nineteen**

They lay together in the predawn hours of the day in what was technically his bedroom. Although, Dani mused, with the amount of time she was spending there it qualified as their bedroom. Somewhere back when she wasn't paying attention they'd crossed a line as partners and become a couple. She'd never slept over this much at Tidwell's. There was the occasional overnight at his apartment, but he never came to her place.

Tidwell was Charlie's idea all along she'd known this. Her partner helped the oafish, but well-intentioned Captain pursue her because he knew that Tidwell was not a bad man, not like her father, not the nameless men that hurt her in anonymous way. Tidwell was blatantly obviously interested from their first meeting, but Dani was used to that. She'd even bedded other cops before, but Kevin was different. He had a kind heart, self-effacing humor and seemingly her best interest at heart – or so they both thought. Now here they were…back at the beginning.

Tidwell was looking less and less like a "good guy" and her father's situation was muddied, cloudy and not at all sure. Jack Reese definitely had his hand in the Bank of LA robbery, Charlie's wrongful conviction, but then… curiously…years later, also his release. Her father had watched an innocent man go to prison for twelve long years, watched him lose everything and then somehow freed him – anonymously. _Did that make him a good man who strayed off the path and was trying to atone for his sins or a bad man playing the long game?_

No one in her life was who he appeared to be, except the long, lean man who held her tightly in his embrace while he slept. Crews, whom she'd seriously misjudged from the outset, was the only thing she was sure of – him and the fact that she loved him. She thought she'd loved men before only to find herself wrong. Sureness was a good feeling, one she hadn't known in years. But this time because of the things they'd been through together and the choices they'd both made; she was sure.

"Crews," she called to him in dreamland.

He grunted something unintelligible and his fingers gripped her more firmly.

"I've got something I gotta take care of," she murmured lightly against his temple. "Let me go, Charlie," she asked.

He relaxed his grip and she rolled away, but he caught her wrist as she rose.

"Come home," he asked. He was awake, but his eyes were blurry and unfocused. His face bore the mark of wrinkles on the pillow and she wondered if she'd ever really seen him under those Armani suits and Persol sunglasses all these years. This was the man she loved; unshaven, slightly off balance, hair askew and t-shirt on backwards, his Zen armor buried under a layer of sleep. He was simply Crews – her Crews.

"Always," she vowed with a soft, gentle and genuine smile. He released her and returned to sleep. He trusted her, he believed her and that it was possible for him to do so after everything he'd been through made her more determined that people would pay for what they'd done to him. People beginning with Constance Griffiths.

* * *

It was early; 7AM on a Saturday morning as she pulled to the curb outside Constance Griffiths' home. The well-manicured, immaculate and verdant lawn yielded to a mansion with columns out front and two expensive Mercedes coupes in the circular drive. It would seem that Mr. Griffiths was at home too.

_Good,_ she thought, _lots of potential for conflict, lots of leverage. _The smile her face held now was dark and predatory. "Connie" as Charlie and Ted liked refer to her had already proven to be a crier, but that wasn't sufficient for what she'd done to Charlie. Even after their "talk" in the driveway, Constance hadn't gotten the message. Dani was here to ensure that she did – once and for all.

She rang the bell – twice. She was greeted by a handsome, distinguished, graying man in his early 50's who was dressed for golf. He was perplexed by her visit on a weekend at this hour, but invited her in nonetheless. One could always rely on the rich to be proper.

"Connie was in the kitchen," he informed her and then led the way narrating his intent to "hit the greens by 8AM." Dani frankly could not care less. She was here to deliver a surgical strike that would take less than five minutes to launch and last a lifetime.

To say Constance was shocked was understatement. The elegant woman noticeably paled and the teacup in her hand began to shake. She put it down lest her husband notice her distress.

"You came to my house," Connie objected in a harsh whisper, while her husband poured Dani a cup of coffee that she'd never touch.

"You hit where I live, I'm returning the favor," Dani warned in a low, dark tone with an accompanying scowl that morphed into an insincere smile as Mr. Griffiths approached with the cup.

"I'm Detective Charlie Crews' partner," she announced to them both.

"Say," the husband said good-naturedly, "isn't that the guy…"

"Yes," Dani and Constance answered simultaneously. Dirty looks went both ways, but neither woman could inflict the damage they'd hoped for with dueling stares.

"And when I say partner," Dani stared hard at Constance, "I don't just mean at work."

This got the husband's attention. He froze. Then slowly his gaze travelled to his wife. Realization dawned and his countenance became stern. Mission one accomplished – this would echo long after Dani's car left the curb.

Constance tried so hard to hold Dani's stare, but failed. Everyone did eventually; it was her forte – staring people down. She'd been in the interview suite with murderers and her partner was a steely-eyed killer when he wanted to be, so the pricey lawyer really didn't stand a chance. Mission two down – intimidate the woman and let her know she wasn't to be trifled with, nor would she allow the lawyer to toy with Crews any longer.

"He's my partner. Mine." She made her point another way, more directly. "Do you understand?"

Constance nodded and tears welled, but Dani was unyielding. The husband shifted uncomfortably but made no effort to intercede; perhaps it was a conversation he subconsciously knew was coming. In retrospect it was obvious that Connie was always a bit too "into" Crews' case and vindicating him by proving his innocence.

"I want to hear you say it," Dani insisted.

"I won't talk to him, see him, again," Griffith dutifully promised. Something in her eyes battled back against the young detective, but Reese was relentless. She just kept waiting for more; hands on her hips, her lips pursed and her glare fiercely determined.

"Ever," Connie began to cry.

Mr. Griffiths, if he'd been surprised, finally put two and two together and figured things out. "I think you should leave," he cautioned as he put his arm around his wife in a belated show of solidarity.

"Crews is off limits – to you," Dani reinforced. "Don't talk to him, don't accidentally run into him, no Christmas cards, no emails, nothing," she demanded. "You don't know him."

Connie sobbed – she was broken, embarrassed and she knew that Reese was absolutely unrelenting. She meant every unspoken threat in her dark gaze.

"You never knew him," Reese repeated under her breath as she turned and left.

* * *

In the car, she tried to feel bad about what she'd done; she couldn't.

Connie had hurt Charlie in a way he could barely describe, but one Dani knew. Wounds to the body heal, wounds to the mind scar and wounds to the soul never heal. They are rough, jagged dark spots; these wounds she knew intimately, because many still marred her young heart. Yet somehow Crews found his way around those perils, navigating her open wounds and the burned patched in her heart and soul. Only with him did she feel alive, safe and whole again. She would defend him. She would fight for him; against Tidwell, IAD, her father and his ex-lawyer. She would fight for him – to the death if necessary.

* * *

The drive home was quick and quiet. The house was still and silent.

She climbed the stairs and carefully took off her sweat suit. Crews was sprawled across the width of their massive bed with the abandon of a six year old crashing from a sugar rush. She sat beside him and stroked his hair. He mumbled her name as his pale hands fumbled for her. The heavy sigh that escaped him when his hands made contact with her warm bare skin was heartbreaking. Even dog-tired and half asleep in their bed, her name was the first syllable on his lips. She knew the condition because she was similarly afflicted. She was rapidly losing her illusions. This was their bed, in their bedroom. He was her partner and she his. Nothing was ever going to separate them again.


	20. Chapter 20

**Locked Away – Chapter Twenty**

It was far later in the morning when he woke. He vaguely remembered her leaving with no mention of her intended destination, but she was back – naked in his bed, in his arms. Her smooth, warm tanned skin contrasted against his pallid coloring. She slumbered deeply and a light smile played across her lips; an expression he'd not noticed on her before. She was more than content; she was happy – with him.

This rabbit hole they were about to go down would steal that smile from her face. Her frown would mar the beauty of the gentle curves of her cheek and deeply troubled coffee colored eyes would replace her smiling ones - _and for what? _He would not go back there even if he could get back there. She was his now, she was his tomorrow and every day after that. He brushed a stray lock of hair from her face and felt her lean into his hand. Her lids fluttered and those deep, dark eyes looked up at him. Her smile spread as she stretched and yawned.

"Hi," he said simply when her eyes returned to his.

"Hi," she returned a tiny bit of shyness still in her face after this long together. But more and more they were together in a way that could not be mistaken for casual sex or ships that pass in the night. There was affection beyond lust, concern beyond capriciousness and a commitment they both felt, but neither gave voice to.

"Where'd you go?" he asked rolling away onto his back.

"To see her," she answered honestly.

"Her – who?" he sat up attentive and interested.

"You know who," she told him her thoughts directly. She didn't filter; she didn't lie. His expression held a question so she answered it for him. "Yesterday was accidental," she explained. "Today I went to make a point."

"Which was?" he led.

"Back off," she returned his intent stare with one of her own.

Moments passed and finally she gave him the rest. She hated having to admit it to him. It gave him far too much pleasure.

"That you're mine. Okay?" she gave in and vocalized while rolling her eyes.

"Yes," he smiled. She'd gone there to warn Connie off – him. She was letting the attractive, accomplished woman that she considered her rival know he was not up for grabs. "I'm…definitely taken."

"More like….owned," she smiled with a predatory grin, pushed him onto his back and kissed the smirk off his face. This time it didn't lead where it usually did, but the kissing brought him a great deal of joy. He remembered being a gangly high school boy back when kissing Jen used to make him dizzy and lightheaded. It was like that.

He lay still holding her against his chest and breathed deeply before going where they had to. "Dani, your father…"

"He's going to end up in prison," she finished his sentence, "or worse."

"Nothing's worse than prison," he told her.

"Dead's worse," she argued.

"No," he told her, "it's not." Her stare demanded more in explanation so he gave it to her. "Dead is over, done, finished. Prison isn't over; it's never over; it never gets better and it never stops."

She considered what he said and impulsively hugged him tightly, nodding her agreement against his chest. "He's done some bad things Charlie – to you, to his family, to this city."

He interrupted her, "I don't want you to be the one who has to bring him in."

"I don't want to. I should, I'm a cop and I know I should…" she admitted. Her honesty was a gift freely given; one that he thought he'd never earn and yet here it was. He was both humbled and touched that he'd penetrated so deeply behind the walls Dani Reese built to keep the rest of the world out.

"Shhh," he kissed her forehead, held her close and made an admission of his own. "I'm not even sure I want to do it."

This puzzled her, "after everything he put you through?"

"He also got me out of prison," Charlie offered, "and I don't know why."

"Will knowing change anything?"

"No," he admitted. "But haven't you ever just wanted to know something?"

"Yeah," she sighed knowing that there was a part of him that was just as human and flawed as the rest of the world. "Do you know how to find him?"

"Uh-uh," he confessed. "But I know someone who does…"

"Don't you say that woman," she warned. Her dark eyes glittered dangerously.

He didn't say a word, but she knew he was right. Constance Griffiths might be the only one who knew how to reach Jack Reese right now.

"Shit," she swore softly.

"It's okay," he told her, "I got an idea."

* * *

"You want me to do what?" Ted repeated incredulously as he swung his head back and forth in a "no" gesture – all the while knowing he'd go anyway.

"Charlie," he whined. "Do I need to remind you of the black eye and beat down I got when Jack Reese had my parole vacated and I ended up back inside?" Jack Reese scared the daylights out of Ted.

"That's not gonna happen again, Ted," Charlie assured him.

"How do you…." Ted stammered.

"Because all we need you to do is have him call me," Dani explained. "We'll do the rest. Charlie can't go there," she looked at her partner who winced at the thought, "because…well, you know why. And I can't go there…" she was at a loss for words about why that was.

"Because she and Connie don't exactly get on," Charlie softened the ferocity of the two women's dislike for one another. He steered Ted by the elbow to the side and whisper quietly to him of Dani's second visit to Connie – the one to her home.

Ted looked over his friend's shoulder at the diminutive brunette and gulped.

"Yeah, okay," he agreed. "I'll do it. I won't like it, but I'll do it." His voice was loud enough for Dani to hear and satisfied he agreed she turned away to gather her things. Ted then asked a question only for Charlie's ears. "Are you sure you want Jack Reese to find you? Does he know you're….you know? With his daughter?" Ted left out the words he was uncomfortable with but the meaning of his question was not lost on Charlie.

"No," he said frankly, "no, he does not."

"Don't you think that's gonna be a problem?" Ted followed up softly. "Charlie, he'll find out. You know he's gonna find out," his fear caused his voice to tremble slightly.

"Yep," Charlie agreed. "She's worth it."

"Worth what?" Ted wondered how bad Charlie thought it would be.

"Worth anything," his friend said plainly. His gaze and attention was no longer Ted's instead it was fixed upon the young woman standing there staring at them both like they were dolts.

Charlie smiled and she scowled, but under her scowl her eyes smiled – for him, at him and only Crews could coax that kind of expression from the moody Detective. Ted hid his apprehension and hoped his friend was right.

* * *

They were waiting for Ted; one was patient, the other fidgeted. Charlie decided to distract his partner with a conversation they needed to have before her father talked with them. "Listen…" he began, "about your father," he risked a glance at her.

Her expression was inscrutable, but her eyes were dark, narrow and concerned demonstrating her level of interest in where this was headed. They never talked about her father.

"Before we talk with him about this…I think we should talk about how we deal with…or rather how we tell him about…us," he offered the opening sally of what he feared would be a long and heated debate.

"He knows," she said bluntly.

"He knows?" Crews repeated dully. "He knows….what exactly?"

"That I love you," she said plainly like she was telling him their order at a drive through.

"How?" he asked with equal measures of wonder and concern in his voice.

"I told him," she now held his eyes. "When I went there to see her, he was with her. He asked me - so I told him."

"Was he mad?" Charlie asked and his eyes wide at the possibilities her answer held.

"I have no idea," she replied, "and what's more I don't care. He chose to get in bed with a bunch of crooked cops, break the laws he swore to uphold, break my mother's heart…" she catalogued her father's many sins.

"…and he hurt you," Charlie interrupted, stepping close and clasping her hand. The intimacy would have resulted in her bolting only weeks earlier. This time, however, she simply smiled shyly and ducked her head to hide her shame, but did not flee.

"Hey," he raised her eyes back to his, "no one gets to hurt you Reese."

"Don't kill him Charlie," she demanded with a sly smile.

"Scout's honor," he grinned holding up two fingers.

"You were never a boy scout," she challenged.

"Maybe, maybe not," he teased. "But you have my solemn vow, I will not harm him…provided he doesn't try to take me out when he finds out I'm your…" he trailed off uncertain of the right word for what they'd become.

"Yeah about that…" she was equally unsure. "Lover? Boyfriend? Partner?" she tried on some terms, but stopped when she got to the one that fit them. It's what they began as and what they still were. Nothing had changed and yet, everything had changed.

"Will you be my partner forever?" he asked somewhat innocently unaware of the enormity of what he'd just said.

Her head canted sideways, "like as in…as long as we both shall live?"

"No," he laughed and she exhaled in relief. He hugged her against his chest and when he felt her relax he gave her the rest. It was less threatening, but just as serious, "just for as long as I live."

Dani didn't look up, she couldn't. He was talking marriage, it was code, but that's what he was saying. She'd never even toyed with the idea of settling down with just one man, now she was having a hard time imagining her life without him in it. It was a big step – one they were both dancing around, but Crews had just laid his level of commitment right out there. He also knew her well enough not to press the issue. But he'd said it and neither of them would forget it.


	21. Chapter 21

_Author's Note: Uh...really big update this time because I couldn't bear to break it into smaller chunks. We're nearly done now - with this vignette. What have I not answered? What questions are unresolved? You know you want to press that feedback button and influence the future._

* * *

**Locked Away – Chapter Twenty-One**

Ted diligently carried out his mission, which landed Jack Reese on Charlie's doorstep that evening.

No one expect him to just show up. A call maybe? A scheduled clandestine meeting perhaps? But not just ring the bell. In point of fact he didn't...ring the bell; he knocked – twice. Then he just opened the door that Crews always left unlocked and walked in.

The house was dark and quiet, but he heard laughing coming from the patio. It was his daughter's laugh – a sound he hadn't heard in years. A muted male voice, followed by her raucous laugh came to him through a layer of glass. He couldn't tell what was being said, but she was pleased with whoever was doing the talking. It made Jack think for a moment, then worry – a lot. He sure the hell hoped it wasn't Crews making his daughter that happy, but after her profession the other day and her current location…he was pretty sure it was.

It was a hot night so they'd gone swimming. The patio was lit in blue and greens and the light filtered through the undulating pool water casting inconsistent rays of light through the black night sky. Jack Reese stood at the French doors behind a layer of glass as Charlie Crews in yellow swim trunks hauled his daughter through the water to the corner of the pool and her white teeth grinned in a broad smile as the red haired man covered her smaller body with his. As Crews kissed her, Dani's tanned hands appeared on his back pulling him even closer. They only broke when they slipped below the surface and both threatened to drown. Even then she came up laughing and smiling. He didn't want to go out there. She'd stop smiling instantly, so he stood in the dark and watched.

Ted cleared his throat.

"Wondered when you'd stop skulking back there," Jack commented without turning.

"I…uh…you," he stammered.

Jack smiled at the other man's discomfort.

Ted was clearly frightened, but he held his ground and regained his composure and his voice. "You should let them know you're here," Ted said sounding stronger than he felt.

"I know," Reese said. There was sadness in his voice.

Ted shifted uncomfortably, but held his position. If Reese wasn't going to make his presence known, Ted would. About the time he summoned the courage to step forward, Jack Reese turned the knob on the door. He stopped halfway out the door and threw back over his shoulder; "you're a good friend to him, Early."

It shocked Ted. Not that Reese knew his name, but that he'd noticed his friendship with Charlie beyond his ability to hurt Crews with it. It puzzled him. Perhaps Reese was not what they all thought; then again…maybe he was just that… or worse.

Ted retired to the garage, but he didn't sleep – he worried. Ted always worried.

* * *

Jack didn't give them the chance to notice him. He barked Dani's name loudly, like he had when he'd yelled at her all those years ago…through middle school, high school, college and later when she'd struggled in those early days with the department.

Crews reacted first. He stood straight up in the water, piercing blue eyes scanning for the voice that they both knew. He fixed on Reese a moment before the older man stepped into the greenish flickering light. Dani dipped her head back, smoothing her hair back with the pool water and tried to convey ease she did not feel as she climbed the pool steps and grabbed a towel. Crews was only a step behind her and his hand rested easily on her hip as she handed him a towel too.

An entire conversation occurred in an unspoken language of glances and nods occurred before she stepped into the conversation they'd all long awaited. A reckoning was coming; it was due. Then as a surprised Jack Reese watched, his daughter reached for the hand of the man he'd put in prison for a crime he didn't commit. He shouldn't have been surprised. She said she loved him. He'd watched Crews kiss her. It wasn't a first kiss; they were and probably had been lovers long enough to become familiar with each other.

But there was none of the coltish awkwardness of a first date, they weren't shy or new at this, they moved with the comfort of a married couple. Then it hit him. Dani was comfortable with Crews because she trusted him. This wasn't some impulsive move to piss him off. It wasn't because her partner had untold millions. It was because for the first time since he'd laid eyes on her as a squalling baby almost thirty years ago, she was content. She'd found her mate and her place in life and her future relied on the tall pale man whose eyes and hand held hers.

As they walked towards him, Charlie's longer stride made it easy for him to place himself in front of her, protecting her with his scarred body. His eyes were wary and he moved with a catlike grace. He was weaponless and yet Jack Reese knew Crews didn't need a gun or knife to kill him. Crews himself was a weapon, one honed against the concrete floors and walls of Pelican Bay. Rumor had it Crews once killed a guard with his bare hands using a single blow. Evidence had shown that the Russian, Nevikov, died from the same type of blow. Crews hadn't lost his edge. He may have been innocent when they bussed him up to Crescent City, but the man was a stone cold killer now.

Crews nodded. His contempt was thinly veiled, but held in check for the sake of his partner.

Dani was stunning in a pale lavender bikini and bare feet. "Dad," she greeted him neutrally.

"You asked to see me," he offered. "Here I am."

Dani told him to have a seat in the house and then led a mute Charlie Crews by the hand up a winding marble staircase to what Jack could only presume held their shared bedroom to change clothes. He paced and blew out a ragged breath. This was going to be far worse than he'd thought; more painful and yet pain was what he welcomed, what he deserved.

He was holding a highball glass of Crews' expensive smoky single malt scotch looking out the window at the city below when he sensed more than heard someone beside him. It was Crews. He had to keep himself from inhaling sharply and cursing, he couldn't prevent himself from jumping.

Crews lips formed a tight smile. "I promised her I wouldn't kill you," he said in a low tone," don't make me break my promise." There was no veil, just a threat.

He heard Dani approach and light suddenly filled the room.

He turned and she was there; his daughter, only different. She wore a simple tank top and jeans. Her feet remained bare and red painted nails adorned her small dark feet. Jack exhaled, "you look just like your mother."

It wasn't what she expected him to say. She frowned for a moment and then recovered quickly. "Mom's had a very hard time with your disappearing act."

"I called your mother before I came here tonight," Jack replied, but there was no edge to his voice. There was instead resignation.

Dani was still angry, and hurt and it showed in her response, "why now? It's been months."

"To tell her that I've arranged to surrender to the police tomorrow," he divulged. "To tell her I was sorry for what I've put this family through," he continued, "to tell her that a long time ago I thought I could live with something that ended up tearing me, us and our family to shreds and that it's finally over."

Dani bit her lip and Crew instantly moved to her side. She only bit her lip to keep from crying. He'd watched her in physical pain on more than one occasion so he knew how deeply Jack words were penetrating. She wouldn't cry; Dani never cried, but she was reeling from her father's disclosure. The little girl she once was wanted to; but the young woman she'd grown into couldn't.

"Do you have some questions you'd like me to answer?" Jack directed his comment at Crews who was now singularly focused on the young woman who held him at bay with just her eyes.

She shook her head as he stepped closer, "don't." Her voice wavered and she held up a trembling hand to ward him off, but Crews walked right through her warning and wrapped her in his arms. For a moment she bristled and halfheartedly pushed away from his strong embrace before she surrendered to his attempt to shield her from harm. "It doesn't hurt," she mumbled. She'd deny it to the world when he knew different.

"I know, honey," he murmured softly into her hair.

Jack watched them. His little girl with the only man she trusted. That used to be him; he'd sold that trust for money. He'd sold his integrity, his trust and his immortal soul for something as meaningless as money. He'd put an innocent man in prison. Prison turned that man into a killer and that killer now held his daughter's trust in the hollow of his hand. _Everything was connected,_ just as Crews said.

Moments passed as Crews simply held her. The person most wronged by him, didn't ask him a thing, didn't even look at him. Crews only had eyes for her.

Finally, when Crews spoke it was to say, "I'd like you to leave my house."

"Sure," the elder Reese replied. "I'd like a word with you outside if you don't mind Crews."

This perplexed Charlie, but he nodded his assent. He didn't follow Jack immediately. Instead he led Dani upstairs, put her to bed and sat with her for a long time stroking her hair and talking softly to her.

"I know what you're doing," she told him with tears still in her voice.

He sat against the headboard and held her in his arms. "Is it working?" he chuckled.

"How can he be like this?" she complained.

"There is something liberating in being a condemned man," he told her plainly. "It would be easier if he was acting like the bastard we both knew him to be a year ago wouldn't it?"

"Yes," she sniffed. "He's just…"

"Your dad, I know," he said sadly. "He's going to be locked away tomorrow – probably for the rest of his life. Are you sure you don't want more from him? You might not ever see him again?"

She shook her head vigorously against his chest, not trusting her voice not to crack.

"Okay," he said. She knew he'd never ask again. That was how Charlie worked. What was in the past, was gone – his wife, his former life, his friends, his hate, his pain, his anger. "I love you," he kissed her sweetly. "I gotta take out the trash," he grinned. "Be here when I get back?"

"Always," she smiled through her tear filled eyes. She was feeling the extremes of both betrayal and sacrifice simultaneously.

He leaned close and rumbled against her ear, a secret even the darkness of their bedroom. "If you cry, I won't tell anyone." There was tenderness and a gentle teasing tone to his very personal request for her to let go and let it out.

A choked sob escaped her before she pushed him away. He left her to cry alone, as she wanted. She didn't want him to see her lose control of her emotions, but she knew he'd never say a word about it. He'd never judge her, belittle or berate her and he'd never feel sorry for her; he accepted that she needed this just as later she'd need him.

* * *

Jack Reese waited for Charlie Crews in the darkness of the cool night on the paved drive in front of the darkened mansion where his daughter now made her home. The door opened and Crews emerged. It had been over an hour.

"She okay?"

"No," Crews answered coolly, "but she will be." Crews stood very still and regarded him. The moon was high in the sky and the world appeared black and white, but that's not what it was…it was shades of miserable and confusing gray. Sadly, Charlie realized, it always would be.

"Why'd you do it?" Crews asked.

"Pbftt," Reese huffed and non-answer. "Which of my many sins would you like me to begin with?"

Crews remained stubbornly mute. He was still angry and he wanted to hurt Jack, but he knew that wouldn't help things.

"Do you really think that any explanation will make any of this right?"

Again Crews said nothing.

Reese ranted. This was a confession he wanted to make. "Bank of LA sounded like a good idea. I had a wife, a little girl. Cops don't make a lot of money. Then things got stupid. Jimmy Dunn couldn't handle it and ate his pistol. Carl Ames started drinking too much, so much. My informant went berserk and killed that family. I got Rachel out of there, but it just kept getting worse. Then you went to prison and that killed me to watch happen, but it was you or my kid…my family. So I got you out when I could and…shit!" he barked. "You have no idea what this is like Crews."

"And now you've come home to pay for your sins," Charlie said blankly. "You can outrun that which you are fleeing - only until you realize it's yourself you are trying to avoid."

Reese stared at him. "That Zen shit isn't just an act is it?"

"No," Charlie said. There was coolness to his voice that made Reese know he was no longer detached and not angry. "But you have made Dani….you hurt her. No one hurts her, Jack," Crews menaced.

Reese stepped back as Crews stepped towards him. "Promise me something Crews," Jack demanded.

"Why the hell would I?" Crews wondered.

"Because what I'm going to ask you to do - you want to do," he replied to the tall red haired man. For a moment Charlie thought Jack Reese was going to ask him to kill him - to put a bullet in him and end it once and for all. He cocked his head to the side but gave no other response.

"You didn't know Dani as a little girl," Reese explained. "I did. I knew her before. When she was tea parties and dolls and… She was just a little girl."

Charlie was having a hard time envisioning Dani Reese with dolls and tea parties and was somewhat distracted by that image when her father made his request.

"Make sure my daughter has lots of children Crews," he said softly. "My little girl always loved children, wanted children. I think you can give that to her. I think she will let you."

Charlie was stunned. He gaped and simply nodded. His head bobbed up and down vigorously several times after he recovered enough to reply. Not only was Jack Reese not upset that he was bedding his daughter, he wanted them to have kids together. Convincing Dani Reese to do that could easily take him the rest of his life.

"Don't let her see me in prison, Crews," Jack turned to walk back to his waiting car.

"You won't last long without help," Crews offered.

"Maybe that's the kindest thing that can happen to me at this point," Jack foretold his own future.

A cop in prison has a hard time. You have to be a hard man, a straight razor to survive. Jack Reese may have once been a tough man, but he was an old man now. He would not last a month in general population.

"The tech they had on you," Jack referred to the tape of Charlie paying off the doctor and the guard, "it's gone. It's the only thing I could do for you, son. It's nowhere near enough, but…" As he climbed into his car and through the open window made one more demand of Crews, "take care of my daughter Crews."

"I will," Charlie vowed.


	22. Chapter 22

**Locked Away – Chapter 22**

It was late when Charlie returned to their bed. In his mind there was no conflict. She belonged there; it was her bed as much as it was his. His life and hers were tied together like a tree and a fence that grew together over time. Her walls no longer kept him at bay, his cool reserve melted by her intense heat.

He'd gone for a long, punishing run to think, to ponder and ruminate over Jack Reese's request. When he finished there was still no answer, simply more questions…about why Jack would ask that of him, about if Dani would ever consent to it and if Dani Reese had ever really been a little girl who played with dolls. That part made him smile. Then he showered at Ted's and had a couple beers before deciding that he'd left Dani in peace to mourn long enough.

When he entered the room, the moon was setting bathing her in soft white light. She lay curled against where he usually slept - out of habit. He climbed into bed and she mumbled his name as her hand snaked across his torso. He smiled. In spite of everything that had happened that night, she was still his and that made him happy. Whatever the coming days brought… they'd face it - together.

* * *

It was morning, late for them, almost 10AM; he was making coffee and she was still sulking when her phone rang. She always sulked in the mornings before coffee, regardless of the hour. He pressed the warm cup of liquid awareness into her hand as her phone danced across the countertop. It was debatable if she'd answer it at all. Mornings were not her best time; this morning was worse than most.

"Would you like me to get that?" he inquired and as if on cue his own phone buzzed. His was Ted. He pressed the button to answer it immediately and winced as Ted began chattering as soon as the line connected.

She smiled slightly as she sipped her coffee. He'd stirred in rich crème, just the right amount of orange blossom honey. It made her coffee rich, multi-layered and unique just like the man who'd smiled at her as he paced, while Ted chattered in his ear.

Charlie only half listened, while simultaneously reassuring his friend things were "fine" when they both knew things were far from that.

An annoying tone emanating from her phone let her know she had voicemail from the missed call. Her phone rang again, dancing across the counter, until she picked it up to examine who wanted to talk to her that badly. The caller ID told her it was Tidwell. She rolled her eyes and mouthed his name to Crews who was watching her intently.

She made Tidwell wait several more rings, while Charlie neared. She could hear Ted's tinny, animated voice coming from the phone and smiled softly in empathy at the pained expression on Charlie's face. She pressed the green button on her phone on the fifth ring and announced her last name only in a very terse tone. She did not enjoy speaking to Tidwell, particularly not on their day off and she had a good idea what he was calling about.

"Da…Detect…Dani," he decided on her first name, which made her angry. He shouldn't have the privilege of knowing her that way anymore. But after getting that much out, Tidwell just stalled and said nothing further.

"What?" Reese questioned, now clearly pissed.

"Your father," he began, "he's here." There was a long moment of empty air, before he added hastily, "with his lawyer."

"Uh-huh," Dani replied. Her response was calculated, calm and non-committal; Crew's influence on her was becoming clearer every day.

Tidwell's voice became hushed and secretive. "The thing is…his lawyer…is also Crews lawyer."

"Ex-lawyer," Dani said sharply. She now had Charlie's complete attention.

His phone snapped shut cutting Ted off midsentence.

"Whatever," Tidwell shrugged off Dani's objection. "That tall, hot, brunette lady lawyer who was with the DA's office for awhile," he twisted the knife hard. Dani hurt him and that was a two way street where he came from in the United States of New York City.

Crews was breathing on her neck and normally, she'd have bristled at anyone inserting themselves into her conversation, but now she simply pulled the phone away from her face and put the call on speaker. They were in this together; this affected him too – profoundly.

"He's negotiating a plea for some kind of information," Tidwell fished.

She didn't respond as Crews leaned close and whispered something only for her ears. She nodded her understanding silently.

"What's he know, Dani?" Tidwell probed. She mulled her response for longer than he thought she should so he asked again. "Dani," Tidwell questioned. "Say something."

"You should know that better than most people that I haven't seen my father in months," she lied. Her tone darkened and lowered, "and how the hell should I know what he knows?" She felt Charlie's warm arm wrap itself around her as he tried to resist the impulse to pull her close, but she felt the gentle tug and sensed his struggle. He wanted to protect her, since he couldn't prevent what was being said, he tried to shield her with his body.

Her bluff was far better than her former lover's. It turned out that years of practice lying to men could sometimes come in handy. "Do you want me to see what they're offering?" Tidwell offered. He was still testing her and she could feel it. He was probing to see what struck home and which areas would still provoke her temper.

Her temper made her unbalanced; Charlie taught her that. Now she was much better at controlling it and not lashing out with her tongue, a talent that she applied easily, but learned little from. It was a new skill and felt awkward to her.

"If I come there, can I see him?" she threw some bait of her own into the mix.

"Uh," he stammered, "I'm not sure…if…well, maybe. But you can't bring Crews," he played his last card. Charlie's eyes narrowed and his lips were tight. They were trying to separate them. He waited to see what his partner would do.

Normally, a flash of ire would light those beautiful brown eyes on fire and she'd smart off with something she couldn't walk away from. It was her weakness, her indulgence – anger.

"What makes you think I'd want Crews and my father in the same room?" she fished.

"I'm just saying…." Tidwell trailed off and when he came back his voice was quieter. "I'm just saying the brass might let you in there, but there's no way they let Charlie Crews within ten city blocks of him."

"Oh, yeah…why's that?" she played dumb. Charlie was bowled over at her masterful manipulation of the situation. She was slow to start but learning fast.

"On account of him killing that Russian with his bare hands," Tidwell offered conspiratorially.

"I don't think that was ever…No one ever proved that. Nevikov's body was too badly burned to prove what killed him for sure," Dani defended. Charlie's hand on her arm caught her attention and his eyes conveyed calm. He didn't need defending, but she felt compelled to anyway. "I'll be there in twenty minutes," she sternly spoke to her former lover. "Can you get me in there?"

"Yeah, Tidwell can pull a few strings," he bragged. She snapped the phone shut and he found himself talking to dead air. "Dani? Reese?" He examined his phone to see the call had ended. "Now, that's just rude," he concluded quietly.

"Do I need to remind you that every time we split up something bad happens?" His play was strong and his point even stronger.

She was walking into LAPD, a place that should have made them feel safe, but it didn't. They both knew they had enemies in that building. Some they could name, some they suspect, some remained hidden. The fact that he couldn't go with her made him edgy and unbalanced. She sensed his frustration.

"I can do this," she laid her hand on his arm.

"You said that about the last thing," he groused uncharacteristically dour.

She returned a stern look, but knew he was right.

"Look, you're only a phone call away. Wait here and I'll call you if I need back up," she softened her refusal to accept his assistance. A couple years ago she never would have consented to his caring, never accepted his support, never expected his concern nor welcomed it. They'd come a long way and yet there were in some ways stubbornly the same.

"Thought you didn't want to talk to him," Charlie probed another angle.

She glanced at him all the while readying herself to go; she didn't respond.

"Last night upset you," he argued with her silence, while grabbing her elbow and forcing her to engage with him. "You didn't want to…"

"I'm not going there for him," she interrupted, "and I'm not going there for me. I'm not even going there for you or with the illusion that I'll find some truth or that he'll tell me anything, say anything, feel anything that will change what he did to you, to me. My mother will be there. I love her and I'm going there for her."

It was something brutally honest from a woman who hid her true feelings most of the time. She clearly cared about how this would effect her mother, but Jack Reese she'd let go of. She knew that she couldn't win her father over and what's more she'd stopped trying. Part of him was saddened that she'd given up on her relationship with her father, but another part of him was proud that she'd been able to let go of something that hurt her for further back than either of them could remember.

Her comment satisfied him to the extent he released her, but he didn't let the topic go as entirely, "Yeah…well, you know how you want to be there for her? Well, I wanna be that for you. I love you," he added softly at the end as if he needed a reason.

She stopped in her preparation and looked hard at him. "I know that Charlie. You are," her delivery held shock that he didn't already appreciate her knowledge that part of her strength came from him, from them together. "You are that for me and you will be an hour from now, in a day, a week, a year…maybe you always will be."

"Not maybe," he vowed. "Always." He clasped her hand in his and wound his fingers through hers.

"But…" she led him where he wanted to go. She could feel the reluctance and tenseness in him. It was more than Jack Reese that bothered Crews.

"I still have questions about Tidwell," he explained. "His part in this, why he didn't do what he could. I wonder…" he drifted off.

"If he was just jealous? Or if he's really a bad guy?" She interrupted filling in his blanks. They were her questions too, but she'd long since released any emotion she attached to Kevin Tidwell. He hadn't hurt her, but they were over and they'd been over for far longer than she realized. Maybe they'd never been at all; maybe they were just a convenient, safe place to hide from the power of her love for and her connection to Crews.

He nodded and his lips were tight. He didn't want her hurt, but what he was asking could tear open an old wound. Dani's relationship with Tidwell had been a good one, a step in the right direction; not punishment but perhaps still penance. "If he is a bad guy…I don't like you being there alone," he confessed.

"Wanna send Ted along?" she joked lightly and stepped in close to kiss him lightly. He grinned as her lips touched his. She was stronger now, and yet still fragile – only he saw it, only he knew it.

"I wanna hold you close and hurt anyone that even looks harshly at you," he gave her the depth of his attachment in words that didn't come close to expressing his desire to protect her.

"That's not very Zen," she chastised lightly as her fingers wound into the short hair at the base of his neck.

He sighed at his failure, "nope."

"Kiss me Charlie," she urged him. "Then let me go, trust me and know that I will always come back – to you."


	23. Chapter 23

Dani was standing behind a layer of one-way glass watching her mother and father argue. She'd long since turned off the sound. Their arguments were all essentially the same. They'd been having this same fight since she was twelve, since the Bank of LA. It all changed that night, the night Jack Reese's SWAT team ambushed a group of bank robbers and stole eighteen millions dollars in cash. When he came home that night he'd changed. She still remembered how he smelled of cordite from the sheer amount of rounds they fired. Everyone died; no one lived even long enough to make it to the hospital. It was police butchery. That night the house was eerily still, but the week after was when the secrets began. Their lives unraveled until all that held them together was hate.

Kevin Tidwell sensed her unease and he placed a shaky hand on her shoulder. He wanted it to be comforting, but the moment she bristled under his touch he knew it was not. "I'm sorry," he mumbled, "I still love you. I wish you'd let me help."

"I asked you for help," she said strongly but she never looked at him. He was just a shaggy shape in the dark of the mirrored glass she looked through.

"For him," he spat. "You asked me to lie for Crews, not for you. I'd have done it for you. I loved you."

"You loved me?" Dani chuckled. "Remind me again. When I was locked in a basement by Roman's goons for a week…didn't you ask someone for help? And wasn't that someone my partner?"

Tidwell shifted uncomfortably, but said nothing. She had a point. He had gone to Crews to ask him for help. No, not ask…demand.

"And did Crews refuse to help you?"

"No," he gave up, "okay no. He didn't, but…"

"But what?" she turned to face him and pounced on where he was going. She was one step ahead of him and she always had been. She'd let herself forget.

"He loved you," Tidwell grumbled. "He's always loved you."

"If you knew that then why?" she barked. "Why pursue me?"

"Because," he began and his gaze shifted to through the glass as Dani's mother slapped her husband and stormed to the door. She had to wait to be let out. Jack Reese was after all, under arrest and the door was bolted from the outside. She knocked, waited crossing her arms stiffly. He'd seen that look before from the young woman now making her way out of this room and out of his life. There was nothing he could say to stop it, but he tried anyway, "wait."

She froze, her back to him, her hand on the door and waited. He knew she wouldn't wait long. "I was wrong to let Crews twist like that. It's just… even before you left I could feel you going. Those weeks you were at the FBI…we barely talked and when we did – it was about him. You may have been sleeping with me, but you've always been with him Dani."

She glanced back at him and confirmed what he'd thought, "you're right."

She met her mother in the hallways and the lyrical tones of Farsi came in low rumbles as their shared foreign tongue hid the topic of their conversation from passers by. Several cops who hadn't known Reese's ethnic background gave her strange looks, like they didn't know her or she was walking down the hall with an RPG strapped to her back.

Outside, leaning against his sleek black car was one tall, pale red head who, as promised had stayed away, but only so far. After opening the back door and ushering Dani's tearful mother inside, he squeezed her hand tightly as he tried to convey all his support and concern through that simple gesture.

She stopped him with a simple tug. "Hey," she beckoned and he stepped close. "I'm okay," she assured him. "My father is a bad man, but Tidwell is just a jealous man."

Crews' brow arched in silent inquiry. Then as she watched he accepted her conclusion without comment or argument and nodded dutifully. It was over, in the past; Crews would never go back there – she might, but he wouldn't. She envied him that ability, that sureness and she sought to convince herself by speaking the words aloud to a man who no longer needed them.

"Seems that he's been jealous of 'us' since before either of us knew there was an – us," she explained. It sounded circular enough to be "Charlie speak" and his grin let her know that he detected it. "And don't you say a word about what I just said," she warned.

"Let's get your mom home," he offered. He paused a moment before deciding to lean close and kiss her chastely on the cheek. After putting her in the car and closing the door, he walked to the driver's side, stopped just a moment and stared up at the big glass building where he knew his rival was watching. Just before he got into the car, he waved. Technically, it was gloating, but he was overdue.


	24. Chapter 24

**Locked Away – Chapter 23**

She'd gone somewhere without him – again. This time she'd only left a terse note. "Got something to take care of. I'm fine. Don't freak out. Be back later. Dani," it read. He kept reading it over and over again. It was never going to say any more than it had the first time he'd read it.

"Do you think Amanda Puryer would…" he began.

"Don't even think about it," Ted warned. "Detective Reese would be angry, so very angry, Charlie." He shook his head vigorously no, "and that wouldn't be good."

"You're right," Charlie sighed and returned to pacing and worrying. "Don't freak out," he read the lines for the hundredth time. "What's that even mean?"

Ted didn't answer because it was apparent to him Charlie was unaware he was in fact "freaking out" as they spoke. His calm, cool, collected friend came unglued when he was worried about the little brunette who held his heart in her hands. He did what he could, talking in circles to fill the silence until Charlie clasped his shoulder, and as kindly as he could, asked Ted to "just shut the hell up."

Ted groused that Reese was rubbing off on him, but stopped talking and they waited together in the silence of the mansion. It seemed empty in ways it never had before.

"I thought the space would be nice," Charlie confessed.

"Isn't it?" Ted wondered.

"It is," Charlie argued with himself. "I just never thought of this place as empty before." He fell silent and after a moment commented, "to fill your cup it must first be empty," repeating a stray fragment of Zen, "you know?"

Ted looked at his friend dumbfounded and unable to follow or comment in any meaningful way. He felt like he was failing because he didn't understand the task.

"To be empty is to be empty of something," Charlie explained, but it didn't really help Ted. "This place always held peace for me, openness, freedom and now…it's empty."

Then the light bulb went on for Ted. "You miss her," he said summing up Charlie's melancholy succinctly in those few words.

"Yeah," Charlie said sadly, "it's empty of her."

Ted said nothing; because there was nothing that could be said; nothing that would fill the emptiness his friend felt in his home and his heart in the absence of his partner. Ted sensed it would be unlikely they would ever be this far apart again because it wounded Charlie deeply and touched the tall, fair man in a hidden place. There was still a part of Charlie Crews that Ted didn't know and that place belonged to Dani Reese now and it always would.

When she came home, Ted silently slipped away. His job was done. He'd kept vigil with Crews and while he hadn't helped, sometimes that was what you did – not help, just be there and be still.

Her face held amusement and a soft smile. "You look like hell," she told Crews.

"Turns out I don't worry well," he joked darkly. "I'm not going to ask where you've been cause I know you'd have told me if you wanted me to know…"

"I've been," she eyed him suspiciously as she told him the answer to the question that he'd asked without actually asking it, "getting my stuff from Tidwell's and then visiting my mother."

An ill-defined darkness flashed behind Charlie's eyes at her mention of Tidwell; jealousy, an impulse he couldn't control heated his brain. But she'd left Tidwell and she was his now; it was time to let that go. He switched gears quickly. "How's your mom?"

"Anxious, tearful, worried…" she stressed the word he'd used moments ago.

"About him?" he asked.

She pulled her badge off and removed her gun. "Uh…no," she admitted. "About herself, how she'll live, where she'll go, what people will think," she explained. "All very real things, but not about him being gone. I think she's relieved."

"That's terrible," he commented.

"Yeah," she agreed. "But it's something that we accept when we settle for something less than what we deserve."

Charlie watched her closely as she took a seat at his island in the kitchen and clasped her hands together. She was thinking about something bigger than her father, than his conspiracy, than even their future. She looked up and asked him a direct question, "What did my father ask you to do?"

He played dumb, partially because that was the very last thing he expected her to ask him and partially because he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to share that with her. "What?"

"Don't you 'what' me," she barked. "When you went outside to talk…what did my father ask you to do?"

He pulled at his collar and looked away. His gaze focused somewhere over her head.

"Crews," she demanded.

"I'm not sure that's…" he started, and then he stopped. He stared deeply into her dark eyes attempting to divine something unknowable. They'd reached the point where he could no longer willingly keep things from her, but this possessed the capacity to frighten her severely and for that reason he was reluctant to share her father's final request.

"Fine," she turned to storm off. In some ways, Dani Reese was predictable and would never change. She was petulant sometimes and he loved that about her as much as it infuriated him.

"Wait," he called her back with just that word. He walked to her. She still faced away from him and wavered between staying and going. He had to convince her to stay and that would require him to tell her a hard truth. His hands stroked her arms from her stiff shoulders to her tiny wrists. He leaned close and inhaled the smell of her. He surrendered and spoke the words that would change their world.

"He asked me to make sure you had lots of children," he confessed and waited for her to bolt. He watched her closely as the words he'd repeated sunk in.

She blinked several times and swallowed hard. She didn't move, but he held his breathe nonetheless. When she finally found her tongue, her only response was a simple subdued, "oh."

No anger, no rage, just an acknowledgement of surprise that her father had asked that of Crews. And that made Charlie Crews wonder if Jack Reese really was right about this one thing….who Dani Reese used to be and could be again.

"That's…that's a helluva thing for him to ask of you," she stammered, flushing red. Now that her father's requested permeated her brain, she was mortified.

"Hey," Crews held her fast and brushed his lips against her temple. "It's something I've always wanted, just never knew you wanted it too." She stopped struggling and stilled in his arms. "It's okay," he counseled softly, "we don't have to, but I'll always want to."

"That little girl," she sounded on the edge of tears, "she's gone Crews. I locked her away along time ago."

"I think part of both of us is always imprisoned, hidden, locked away. But there's also a time for hopes and dreams. There's a place where it's safe to let that person see the light again, to feel the sun on their face and to dare to walk outside – it's hard but it's no harder than keeping that part of yourself locked away all your life."

She turned in his arms, tears in her eyes but stronger than he'd ever seen her. "I don't know if I can do that," she admitted.

"Shhh," he held her close folding his arms around her and feeling the heat of her breath and tears against his chest. "No one says you ever have to, but if you want to…we will," he promised softly. They stayed very still for a long moment and then he took her away from that moment toward one happier and lighter.

"Or we could just practice," he teased, kissing the tears from her cheeks. Framing her face with both hands he smiled, "I like practicing," he kissed her lips and felt her respond to him. He would never force her, never bully her, never blame her or berate her if his desire did not become hers. He knew they were separate souls on a shared journey. It was sufficient for him to travel with her for the rest of their days.

All the emotion of the preceding days came seeping through her carefully constructed walls, but she would not drown. He would buoy her; he would weather any storm with her. He would willingly father her children and never hold it against her if she decided against them. He would hold her against his heart for the rest of her life – her partner. Perhaps that was what her father saw in them; a chance they could escape the sins of their collective past. She loved him with all that was left of her battered heart and in those moments she became committed to showing him just how much.

"I'd like to go to bed now," she told him. His smile was like daylight breaking after a long night. "I'd like that too," he took her by the hand and led the way.


End file.
